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A 


'"^  H : — ^<.-_l 


FAREWELL  DINNER 


FRANCIS   ELLINGWOOD  ABBOT, 


ON    RETIRING    FROM   THE 


EDITORSHIP  OF  "THE  INDEX," 


AT 


Y0UNG:S  hotel,  boston,  JUNE  24,    1880. 


FULL    REPORT    OF    THE    SPEECHES,    TOGETHER    WITH 

NUMEROUS  LETTERS  FROM  ABSENT  FRIENDS 

IN  AMERICA  AND  ENGLAND. 


J 

BOSTON  : 

PRESS  OF  GEO.  H.  ELLIS,  loi  MILK  STREET. 

1880. 


CONTENTS, 


THE  DINNER. 

Page 

Circular  of  Invitation e 

Address  of  the  Chairman,  Rev.  C.  G.  Ames 6 

Response  of  Mr.  Abbot lo 

Speech  of  Rev.  Rowland  Connor     .     .    ' 14 

Speech.of  Dr.  P^dward  Wig(;lks\vorth    ...*..' 19 

Speech  of  Rev.  William  J.  Potter 21 

Speech  of  Rev.  George  Batch elor 24 

Speech  of  Dr.  Carl  H.  Horsch 28 

Speech  of  Mr.  S.  H.  Morse 23 

Speech  of  Uriel  H.  Crocker,  Esq 31 

Speech  of  Rev.  W.  H.  Spencer       32 

Closing  Words  of  the  Chairman 34 

THE  LETTERS. 

From  Rev.  John  C.  Learned 3^ 

From  Rev.  Edward  C.  Towne 36 

From  Mr.  C.  D.  B.  Mills ^j 

From  E.  W.  Meddaugh,  Esq 39 

From  Rev.  Charles  Voysey 40 

From  Gen.  Robert  J.  Turnbull 41 

From  Prof.  Ezra  Abbot 41 

From  ex-Judge  E.  P.  Hurlbut 42 

From  Mr.  George  William  Curtis 43 

From  Rev.  Henry  W.  Bellows 43 

From  Prof.  William  T.  Harris 43 

From  Rev.  Moncure  D.  Conway 44 

From  Prof.  Felix  Adler 45 


/"fd^ 


1 


4  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

THE  LETTERS.— (CoH^muecl) 

From  Rev.  John  W.  Chadwick 46 

From  Hon.  Frederick  Douglass 47 

From  Mr.  John  L.  Stoddard 47 

From  Rev.  David  A.  Wasson 48 

From  Rev.  Robert  Collyer      . 49 

From  Rev.  MiNOT  J.  Savage       ' 49 

From  Mr.  Oliver  Johnson 50 

From  Prof.  Francis  E.  Nipher 51 

From  Rabbi  Max  Schlesinger 51 

From  Mr.  B.  F.  Underwood       52 

From  Mr.  Charles  K.  Whipple 53 

From  Prof.  Adolph  Werner •     •    •    •  53 

From  Rev.  Samuel  Longfellow  . 54 

From  Mr.  George  J.  Holyoake 54 

From  Mr.  Charles  Watts 55 

From  Mr.  Nathaniel  R.  Waters       55 

From  Mr.  Lewis  G.  Janes 56 

From  Mr.  Charles  M.  Cuyler 56 

From  Mr.  E.  B.  Welch 57 

From  Mr.  William  Green 57 

From  Mr.  R.  W.  Emerson,  by  his  Daughter 58 


THE    DINNER, 


The  origin  of  the  flattering  testimonial  of  regard  which 
was  tendered  to  Mr.  Abbot  by  his  friends  on  quitting  his 
editorial  post,  and  which  took  the  form  of  a  Complimentary 
Dinner  at  Young's  Hotel,  Boston,  on  June  25,  is  sufficiently 
explained  by  the  following  circular  :  — 

Boston,  Mass.,  May  17,  1880. 
Dear  Sir:  — 

With  the  last  day  of  June  next,  the  connection  of  Mr.  Francis  E. 
Abbot  as  editor  of  The  Index  terminates.  We  who,  like  so  many 
others,  have  been  interested  in  the  success  and  influence  of  that 
paper,  who  have  observed  how  intimately  blended  with  it  have  been 
Mr.  Abbot's  life  and  efforts  for  the  ten  years  of  its  existence,  and  who 
have  been  warmly  attached  to  him  under  the  spell  of  his  strong,  manly, 
yet  beautiful  character,  desire  now  to  give  him  the  honor  and  his  many 
friends  the  pleasure  of  a  social  meeting  and  a  dinner.  The  suggestion 
is  a  purely  friendly  and  voluntary  one  on  our  part,  and  Mr.  Abbot  is  as 
yet  quite  ignorant  of  the  matter. 

Rev.  M.  J.  Savage  has  consented  to  preside  at  the  dinner,  and  we 
hope  to  make  the  occasion  one  of  rare  enjoyment.  We  sincerely  trust 
that  you  will  find  it  convenient  to  attend,  in  anticipation  of  which  we 
request  you  to  send  a  note  of  acceptance  to  Mr.  J.  A.  J.  Wilcox, 
8  Pemberton  Square,  Boston,  Mass.,  as  soon  as  possible. 

The  meeting  and  dinner  will  be  at  Young's  Hotel,  Boston,  on  the 
25th  June,  at  6  P.M. 

Very  truly  yours, 

m.  j.  savage. 

wm.  j.  potter. 

f:.  wigglesworth,  m.d. 

F.  V.  BALCH. 

H.  K.  OLIVER,  Jr.,  M.D. 

CHAS.  E.  PRATT. 

J.  A.  J.  WILCOX. 

In  response  to  this  invitation,  about  fifty  gentlemen 
assembled  at  Young's  at  the  time  named,  and  after  about 
an  hour  of  agreeable  social  converse  sat  down  to  a  banquet 


6  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

prepared  with  all  the  taste  and  elegance  for  which  this 
well-known  hotel  is  noted.  Among  those  present  were 
Rev.  George  A.  Thayer,  Alexander  Foster,  J.  F.  Barrett, 
S.  P.  Lord  of  Lynn,  Seth  Hunt,  J.  L.  Cutler,  Dr.  A. 
Alexander  of  Dorchester,  David  H.  Clark,  John  Curtis  of 
Grantville,  James  Dillaway  of  Somerville,  S.  D.  Bardwell 
of  Shelburne  Falls,  N.  T.  Allen  of  West  Newton,  F.  H. 
Buchanan  of  Amesbury,  Charles  Ellis  of  Essex,  H.  P. 
Hyde,  S.  S.  Green  of  Worcester,  George  W.  Park  of  Cam- 
bridge, Frederick  Beck,  the  Rev.  S.  H.  Winkley,  J.  A.  J. 
Wilcox  of  Chelsea,  H.  W.  Wellington  and  Cornelius  Well- 
ington of  Lexington,  Charles  Nash  of  Worcester,  George 
H.  Ellis,  Dr.  Aldrich  of  Fall  River,  John  L.  W^hiting,  D.  G. 
Crandon  of  Chelsea,  John  C.  Haynes,  the  Hon.  S.  E. 
Sewall,  William  H.  Hamlen,  S.  B.  Weston  of  Leicester, 
Mass.,  T.  L.  Savage,  George  R.  Taber,  Charles  W.  Storey, 
Joseph  H.  Allen,  Dr.  Edward  Wigglesworth,  U.  H.  Crocker, 
and  others. 

The  Rev.  Charles  G.  Ames,  editor  of  the  Boston  Chris- 
tian Register,  presided.  After  the  play  of  knife  and  fork 
had  about  ceased,  he  rose,  called  the  company  to  order, 
and  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

ADDRESS  OF  THE  CHAIRMAN. 

There  is  a  point  beyond  which  eating  ceases  to  be  vir- 
tuous ;  yet  our  banquet  is  not  at  an  end, —  the  best  is  to 
come.  We  are  to  serve  up  a  live  man.  We  are  all  canni- 
bals to-night.  Confucius  says,  "  All  can  eat  and  drink  ;  but 
only  a  few  can  distinguish  the  flavor."  Precisely  because 
we  think  we  can  distinguish  the  flavor,  we  are  ready  for  the 
next  course  of  this  entertainment,  and  every  mouth  waters 
for  Abbot.     [Applause.] 

As  to  the  Chairman  that  has  been  put  upon  you  for  the 
evening,  the  question  has  been  raised  whether  he  might  not 
be  found  in  the  position  of  the  old  German  soldier  in  Penn- 
sylvania, who  fought  in  the  American  Revolution,  and  who, 
after  being  warmed  up  a  little  more  than  I  have  been,  was 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  / 

brought  forward  on  a  Fourth  of  July  to  tell  stories'  of  the 
war.  ''Did  you  ever  see  Washington  ?"  they  asked.  "Nein, 
I  never  seen  Vashington."  ''Why,  how  was  that.?"  "Oh, 
I  vos  on  de  oder  side."  But,  without  pretending  to  any 
harmony  of  opinion  which  does  not  exist,  I  cannot  admit 
that,  in  all  the  recent  controversies,  I  was  "on  the  other 
side."  I  hold  it  forever  true  that  all  honest  men  agree  in  a 
sense  ten  thousand  fold  more  serious  than  their  differences, 
and  that,  in  standing  for  simple  honesty,  they  are  forever 
under  the  same  flag.  And  we  are  not  here  to-night  to  fight 
over  old  battles,  nor  to  rake  open  the  embers  of  former  con- 
troversies. We  are  here  to  pay  a  tribute  to  personal  worth, 
because  we  believe  in  it  and  recognize  it.  Others  will  speak 
of  Mr.  Abbot's  work:  let  me  speak  of  himself.  I  want  to 
use  him  as  an  argument  for  religious  faith.  Some  of  us, 
who  hold  fast  to  the  old-fashioned  notion  that  there  is  a  God 
in  Israel  and  in  the  universe,  are  very  glad  to  find  any  sign 
of  His  presence  in  the  human  race,  any  evidence  that  He 
has  been  here;  and  what  better  proof  can  there  be  of  the 
higher  wisdom  and  goodness  than  to  find  a  sample  of  it, 
some  share  of  wisdom  and  goodness,  in  human  form  ?  The 
hardest  point  to  get  round  in  the  theistic  argument  is  to 
explain  why  such  a  father  as  we  take  God  to  be  should  have 
such  a  family  as  we  find  ourselves  to  be.  We  manage  this 
difficulty  by  taking  it  for  granted  that  His  children  are  not 
brought  up  yet,  that  they  are  still  in  early  infancy ;  and  so, 
by  following  out  the  general  conclusion  to  which  evolution 
points,  our  faith  finds  rest  in  joy  and  hope.  And  when  we 
light  now  and  then  on  an  honest  and  a  faithful  man,  with 
clear  eyes  in  his  head,  we  are  ready  to  say,  This  is  the  kind 
of  crop  God  means  to  raise ;  and  it  is  well  worth  His  while 
to  make  a  world  and  run  it  for  a  few  millions  of  years  for  the 
sake  of  such  a  harvest. 

The  test  of  virtue  is  in  soldierly  qualities, —  in  loyalty  and 
capacity  for  resistance.  In  Francis  Abbot,  we  honor  a 
gallant  soldier, —  a  man  who  has  shown  the  courage  of  con- 
viction and  of  fidelity  under  fire,  the  highest,  finest  form  of 
courage,  tested  by  subtlest  exposure.     We  honor,  also,  the 


8  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

poise  and  self-possession  which  help  a  man  to  keep  his  head 
amid  moral  contradictions  and  confusions,  and,  like  the  old 
classic  heroes,  "not  to  be  frightened  by  the  snorting  of  the 
horses."  [Applause.]  We  have  seen  this  man  in  the  excit- 
ing conflict  of  opinions.  When  has  he  ever  betrayed  any 
concern  for  himself  which  qualified  his  concern  for  the  tri- 
umph of  truth  ?  Who  ever  knew  him  to  deal  a  foul  blow  or 
to  use  a  poisoned  weapon }  The  sword-cuts  from  an  honest 
soldier's  blows  bring  their  own  balsam  ;  and  who  would  not 
rather  bear  the  smart  and  stanch  the  Ijlood  of  fair  and  square 
fighting  than  wipe  away  the  beslavering  of  cowardly  flattery 
and  pretended  friendship  ? 

Our  gathering  is  something  more  than  a  reunion  of  those 
who  have  contended  on  the  same  side  in  recent  controversies  : 
it  is  a  recognition  of  qualities  which  are  praiseworthy  wher- 
ever they  appear,  on  every  side  of  every  question.  The 
exchange  of  civilities  between  those  who  agree  costs  little  and 
means  nothing :  the  exchange  of  civilities  between  those  who 
differ  is  one  of  the  finest  influences  of  the  world,  and  is  a 
power  for  uplifting  society  out  of  its  debasing  bigotries. 
When  rebel  and  Yankee  pickets  exchanged  tobacco  across 
the  lines,  humanity  spoke  above  the  clangor  of  arms,  and  a 
pledge  was  given  of  the  ultimate  restoration  of  the  Union. 

But  this  occasion  represents  something  still  better  than  an 
exchange  of  signals  between  men  who  differ ;  for  we  honor 
to-night  a  soldier  of  universal  principles,  —  a  man  who  has 
a  right  to  look  around  on  the  world  without  confronting  a 
single  enemy,  for  he  has  never  given  up  to  party  what  was 
meant  for  mankind.  He  has  never  thought  it  necessary  to 
purchase  peace,  nor  harmony,  nor  fellowship,  at  the  cost  of 
liberty  or  truth,  because  he  looked  beyond  conflict  to  the 
time  when  the  victories  of  righteousness  would  bring  endur- 
ing peace. 

I  see  in  Mr.  Abbot  a  passionate  lover  of  truth  and  a  pas- 
sionate hater  of  lies.  John  Stuart  Mill  once  said  of  the 
English,  "They  never  feel  safe,  unless  they  are  living  under 
the  shadow  of  some  conventional  fiction,  some  agreement  to 
say  one  thing  and  mean  another."     Is  not  this  insincerity  the 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  9 

disease  of  society  and  of  Christendom  ?  But,  if  any  institu- 
tion wears  a  mask,  it  has  never  seemed  possible  for  Mr. 
Abbot  to  keep  his  hands  off.  He  is  a  born  moral  detective. 
Such  service  has  its  own  peculiar  peril,  since  a  man  runs  the 
risk  of  becoming  suspicious.  There  are  ugly  faces,  —  some 
of  us  come  by  them  honestly;  and  I  think  he  may  sometimes 
have  gone  for  an  ugly  face,  imagining  it  to  be  a  mask.  But 
such  a  mistake  is  an  indirect  compliment  to  the  Eternal 
Beauty,  which  his  faith  affirms  has  a  right  to  shine  out 
everywhere  in  God's  universe.  I  think  this  instinct  of  the 
moral  detective  by  divine  appointment  goes  far  to  explain 
many  points  in  his  history.  He  is  quite  unable  to  look  on 
human  affairs  with  indifference,  and  quite  unwilling  to  look 
off  from  such  affairs. 

Despite  his  professed  renunciation  of  Christianity,  I  have 
actually  caught  him  conforming  to  that  precept  of  Jesus, 
"Call  no  man  master,  neither  be  called  master";  for  he  is 
as  averse  to  wearing  the  title  as  he  is  to  conceding  it.  And, 
by  warrant  of  another  Christian  principle,  I  feel  authorized 
to  pronounce  that  he  is  entitled  to  the  applause  of  mankind. 
He  is  greatest  who  is  servant  of  all;  and,  as  Emerson  says, 
"  He  serves  all  who  dares  be  true." 

But  it  is  not  my  wish  to  monopolize  the  evening  or  its 
topics  :  there  will  be  enough  to  say,  and  enough  to  say  it. 
It  is  not  eas/  to  predict  just  where  the  lightning  will  strike, 
and  I  advise  every  one  in  the  room  to  hold  himself  ready  to 
respond  or  to  run. 

This  is  my  contribution.  The  enemy  of  frauds  and  shams 
is  every  man's  friend  ;  the  champion  of  purity  is  the  defender 
of  eyery  household ;  the  student  and  teacher  of  universal 
principles  is  the  servant  of  all  mankind ;  and  the  man  who 
puts  his  life  behind  those  principles  is  the  "King  of  Hearts." 
As  such,  we  salute  him,  and  crown  him  with  our  love.  God 
bless  him !     [Applause.] 


10  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

RESPONSE  BY  MR.  ABBOT. 

Mr.  Chairman, —  It  is  hardly  fair  to  make  a  man  officiate 
at  his  own  funeral.  I  came  here  to  be  decently  buried,  and 
it  was  my  chief  ambition  to  conduct  myself  like  a  well- 
behaved  corpse;  and  here  you  bring  me  up  the  first  thing, 
and  inform  me  that  I  am  to  be  barbecued  alive,  which  is  a 
species  of  cannibalism  not  in  order  with  corpses.  [Laughter.] 
It  is  not  easy  to  try  to  joke,  gentlemen ;  I  confess  I  feel  very 
much  touched,  at  the  exhibition  of  kind  feeling  which  has 
come  to  me  just  now,  when  I  am  making  a  very  marked 
change  in  my  life,  leaving  an  occupation  to  which  I  have 
given  a  decade,  and  going  into  something  new,  I  hardly 
know  what  myself.  You  all  step  forward  kindly,  and  with 
warm  hands  and  warmer  hearts  and  friendly  eyes  shake  my 
hand,  and  bid  me  God-speed  on  my  way.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  your  kindness  comes  to  me  with  peculiar  power  just  at 
this  particular  period  in  my  life ;  and  I  can  but  thank  you  in 
all  sincerity,  with  all  the  warmth  of  reciprocity,  and  assure 
you  that  the  friendship  which  you  here  show  to-night  goes 
right  straight  home  to  my  heart.  At  the  same  time,  I  find 
something  in  me  refusing  to  accept  this  banquet  as  a  merely 
personal  act  of  kindness.  We  have  all  of  us  been  drilled  in 
the  idea  of  avoiding  man-worship,  and  steering  clear  of 
everything  that  looked  like  i'  ;  and  it  makes  me  feel  so 
strange  to  be  here,  receiving  a  complimentary  dinner,  that  I 
seek  refuge  from  the  very  thought  of  it,  and  feel  sure  that 
what  has  really  brought  you  together,  my  friends,  is  some- 
thing that  is  very  much  larger  than  F.  E.  Abbot.  Many  of 
you  I  have  never  even  met  before  to-night ;  some  of  you, 
perhaps,  I  have  met  but  seldom  ;  others  are  old,  long-tried, 
and  very  dear  friends.  Now,  it  is  very  evident  that  there 
must  be  something  more  than  any  mere  personal  qualities  of 
mine  to  bring  persons  here  who  never  knew  me,  never 
touched  my  hand  nor  looked  in  my  eyes.  There  is  some- 
thing more  in  it  than  just  myself.  If  there  were  not  some- 
thing more,  I  could  not  deem  myself  quite  an  honest  man  to 
sit  here,  Mr.  Chairman,  and  take  what  you  have  been  saying 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  r  '  J,>      II 

to  me.  I  think  that  this  demonstration  is  an  expression  of  ; 
moral  support  in  the  hard  warfare  that  I  have  had  to  'fight 
for  two  or  three  years  back  to  vindicate  the  existence  and  /  , 
reality  in  this  world  of  an  honorable  liberalisni.  [Applause.]. ,  ^ 
If  it  is  not  that,  if  that  is  not  the  real  meaning  of  this 
gathering  to-night,  I  shall  go  home,  for  one,  sadly  disap- 
pointed. I  do  not  pretend  to  be  wholly  without  vanity, 
but  I  have  not  got  enough  to  accept  this  demonstration 
with  eyes  entirely  blinded.  I  know  perfectly  well  it  means 
something  more  than  any  mere  personal  qualities  can  call 
forth.  I  take  it,  therefore,  as  g.n  expression  of  your  support 
in  the  very  difficult  task  which  has  fallen  to  me  in  these 
late  years  ;  and  I  count  it,  therefore,  as  something  more 
than  of  value  to  me.  It  is  of  value  to  your  cause,  it  is  of 
value  to  this  community,  that  you  here  show  that  I  have 
not  been  utterly  alone  in  the  conflict  I  have  had  to  wage. 
To  make  this  plain  is  of  vastly  more  importance  than  to 
pay  compliments  to  any  man's  record.  To  show  the  world 
that  there  is  a  strong  longing  among  liberals  themselves  for 
an  honorable  liberalism,  just,  upright,  and  pure, —  that  is  a 
public  service  which  may  well  compensate  you  for  the  labor 
and  the  trouble  of  preparing  this  sumptuous  feast.  I  hope 
that  all  who  may  hear  or  read  of  this  gathering  will  so  con- 
strue it,  and  that  they  will  say:  "It  is  not  true  that  Abbot 
was  alone.  There  were  many  friends  who  sympathized  with 
him,  though  they  had  no  way  of  expressing  it  publicly  or 
collectively ;  and  it  appears  now  that  they  did  in  their  hearts 
value  the  principles  that  Abbot  stood  for."  [Applause.]  If 
that  is  the  meaning  of  this  gathering,  I  feel  that  it  will  ac- 
complish a  good  purpose,  and  be  of  great  moral  benefit  to 
our  common  cause. 

I  do  not  think  that  anybody  who  has  been  in  a  situation 
other  than  that  of  an  editor,  in  these  recent  years,  can  ex- 
actly or  fully  understand  the  overpowering  necessity  of  this 
seemingly  personal  contest.  I  think  it  is  true  that  some  of 
my  own  friends  have  suspected  me  of  having  had  after  all, 
^at  the  bottom  of  it,  nothing  more  than  a  personal  feud.  As 
if  it  were  anything  to  me  what  other  papers  said  or  what 


12  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

other  editors  did, —  as  if  I  cared  the  snap  of  my  finger  for 
the  merely  personal  record  of  men  who  have  nothing  in 
common  with  me !  I  think  that  even  some  of  my  own  per- 
sonal friends  have  supposed  that  I  was  personally  mortified 
and  hurt  at  not  being  re-elected  to  the  presidency  of  the 
National  Liberal  League  two  years  ago.  I  have  no  doubt 
they  did  :  that  is  the  way  men  often  judge  each  other.  I 
doubt  if  it  is  easy  for  Americans  to  understand  how  one  can 
go  forward  and  say :  '*!  nominate  myself  for  this  office.  I 
offer  myself  as  candidate,  and  solicit  your  votes,  and  ask  to 
be  elected."  I  don't  believe  thdt  many  people  can  under- 
stand how  a  man  can  do  that,  and  yet  not  care  at  all,  person- 
ally, for  the  office  he  seeks.  Yet  that  was  done :  that  was 
the  truth  of  it.  The  cause  of  enlightened  and  pure-inten- 
tioned  liberalism  demanded  representatives  at  that  time,  and 
it  demands  them  still ;  and  I  look  abroad  with  anxiety  to 
find  men  willing  to  take  up  this  work  of  defending  a  pure 
and  upright  and  enlightened  liberalism  against  the  perfect 
avalanche  of  the  sham.  The  world  needs  them  to-day  more 
than  ever;  and,  I  assure  you,  I  don't  run  out  of  this  fight 
voluntarily.  If  it  were  not  a  necessity  thrust  upon  me,  I 
would  stay  in  this  fight  till  I  dropped  dead  in  my  tracks 
rather  than  abandon  it;  but  there  is  no  help  for  it. 

Now  I  want  to  show  you  one  little  proof  of  this  call  to 
defend  liberalism  that  I  have  spoken  of.  I  hold  in  my 
hand  a  page  torn  out  from  the  latest  number  of  Scribner  s 
Monthly,  for  July ;  and  I  want  to  read  you  one  little  sentence 
from  it,  to  show  you  the  pressing  public  necessity  of  just 
such  work  as  The  Index  has  been  doing  the  past  few  years. 
This  is  what  Dr.  Holland  says :  — 

"  The  great  majority  of  the  infidels  of  this  country  are  heart  and  soul 
with  Bennett."  [By  infidels,  he  means  liberals.]  "They  have  openly 
and  blatantly  confessed  themselves  to  be  sympathetic  with  the  free-love 
doctrines  of  the  man  whom  they  have  undertaken  to  make  a  hero  and  a 
martyr  of.  The  Index  makes  one  mistake.  Mr.  Bennett  has  not  trans- 
formed his  aiders  and  abettors  in  the  infidel  ranks  into  men  and  women 
like  himself.  He  has  only  furnished  them  an  occasion  for  the  expres- 
sion of  their  opinions  and  sympathies.  He  is  not  a  man  of  such  intel- 
lectual force  and  mao^netic  influence  that  he  has  been  able  to  draw  the 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  13 

great  majority  of  infidels  in  the  country  after  him,  but  he  has  been  able 
to  show,  or  rather  the  country  has  been  able,  through  him  and  the  sym- 
pathy manifested  for  him,  to  see,  that  the  prevailing  infidel  sentiment  of 
this  country  is  impure  to  the  last  degree,  and  is  not  to  be  trusted  with 
any  social  interest  or  with  any  political  influence  whatever.  The  safety 
and  purity  of  society  rests,  as  it  always  has  rested,  with  the  believers  in 
and  professors  of  Christianity.  The  purer  influences  among  the  '  Lib- 
erals,' as  they  delight  to  call  themselves,  have  been  formally  and  effect- 
ually voted  down." 

The  Index  did  not  make  the  mistake  here  attributed  to  it, 
but  I  must  sadly  confess  the  substantial  justice  of  Dr.  Hol- 
land's conclusions  from  his  premises.  That  is  the  kind  of 
record  which  liberalism  has  been  to  all  appearance  making 
for  itself  by  the  inaction,  by  the  silence,  of  those  who  ought 
to  have  rushed  to  my  side  and  upheld  with  me  the  public 
standard  of  a  pure  and  sagacious  liberalism.  It  has  been  a 
very  unfair  representation  of  liberalism  that  has  been  given 
to  the  world  for  the  last  two  or  three  years,  but  I  cannot 
blame  Dr.  Holland  at  all  for  his  scathing  criticism.  He  has 
drawn  logically  correct  inferences  from  the  only  facts  before 
him ;  for  the  convictions  of  pure  liberalism  have  failed  to 
assert  themselves  publicly.  Yet  if  it  is  true  that  the  lower 
type  of  liberalism  has  got  enough  energy  and  self-assertive- 
ness  to  come  forward  and  declare  itself  to  the  world  emphat- 
ically, squarely,  strongly,  while  the  better  type  of  liberalism 
is  too  feeble  to  make  any  such  self-assertion,  too  :^eble  or 
too  wanting  in  public  spirit,  I  think  that  Dr.  Holland  is 
substantially  right,  and  that  the  liberalism  of  this  country 
will  go  down  before  the  overwhelming  condemnation  of  the 
people.  Let  us  try  to  rescue  liberalism  from  such  re- 
proaches, really  undeserved,  yet  justified  by  our  own  apathy, 
as  these  of  Dr.  Holland.  He  is  a  fair  man ;  he  does  not 
mean  to  misrepresent  at  all,  or  to  pervert ;  he  has  argued 
honestly  from  the  facts  he  has  seen.  And  it  behooves  us 
now  to  give  public  expression,  in  every  possible  way,  to  that 
higher  and  nobler  liberalism  which  has  purity,  honor,  truth- 
fulness, justice,  and  integrity  at  heart.     [Applause.] 

That  is  the  reason,  gentlemen,  why  I  value  this  demon- 
stration.    It  pleases  me  as  a  man  :  I   tell  you  sincerely,  it 


14  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

goes  right  home  to  my  heart;  but  it  pleases  me  more 
that,  as  a  representative  of  the  liberalism  you  approve,  you 
should  be  moved  to  give  me  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  on 
quitting  my  post.  I  take  it  to  be  a  certification  to  th^  world 
that  your  sympathies  have  been  with  me  in  the  work  I  have 
been  doing.  I  know  we  are  here  Unitarians  and  Non-Unita- 
rians, and  I  rejoice  to  stand  with  Christians,  with  Catholic 
and  Protestant  Christians  alike,  for  justice  and  purity;  and 
I  will  always  do  so.  These  things  are  more  precious  than 
our  little  differences  of  theological  opinion.  When  it  comes 
to  the  salvation  of  that  on  which  all  society  rests,  the  sanc- 
tity and  purity  of  our  homes,  then  I  say  all  good  men  must 
join  hand  to  hand  and  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder,  and  make 
common  contest  for  the  preservation  of  that  which  makes 
life  most  worth  living.  [Applause.]  And  so  I  sit  down  as 
I  rose,  thanking  you  much,  as  I  must  and  do,  for  the  kind- 
ness of  your  expression  to  me,  but  a  great  deal  more  for  the 
expression  you  have  here  given  of  your  sympathy  with  that 
which  is  dearer  to  me  than  even  myself.     [Applause.] 

The  Chairman  then  read  letters  from  Messrs.  Samuel 
Longfellow,  Charles  D.  B.  Mills,  E.  W.  Meddaugh,  and 
others,  printed  below,  and  called  upon  Mr.  Connor  to  speak. 


•      ADDRESS  OF  REV.  ROWLAND  CONNOR. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  phraseology  with  which  our  pre- 
siding officer  began  this  evening  is  somewhat  unfortunate. 
He  spoke  of  a  barbecue,  which  necessitated,  of  course,  the 
introduction  of  a  corpse.  Then  Mr.  Abbot  went  beyond 
that,  and  proposed  to  have  a  flineral ;  and,  if  we  keep  along 
in  the  same  direction,  we  must  go  beyond  the  funeral.  The 
only  way  in  which  I  can  do  that  is  to  follow  the  lesson  which 
the  ancients  gave  in  telling  us  that  every  feast  needed  its 
skeleton. 

Mr.  Ames.  —  I  thought  you  were  coming  to  the  resurrec- 
tion. 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  I  5 

Mr.  Connor.  —  No:  the  dry  bones  of  the  skeleton  precede 
the  resurrection.  The  resurrection  will  keep  for  somebody 
else.  The  skeleton  I  would  introduce  at  this  feast  is  this  : 
that  I  am  not  very  hopeful  with  reference  to  the  future  of — 
what  shall  I  say  here,  with  Free  Religionists  and  Unitarians 
and  I  know  not  what  else  around  me.^  —  I  will  say  simply 
with  reference  to  the  future  of  liberalism  in  theology.  It  is 
easy  enough  to  be  hopeful  in  this  presence,  where  the  line 
of  thinking  moves  in  one  direction,  —  easy  enough  to  be 
somewhat  buoyant  in  spirit,  after  listening  to  such  words  as 
we  have  listened  to,  both  in  the  speeches  and  in  the  letters 
which  have  been  read  to  us ;  but,  when  we  go  away  from 
here,  and,  forgetting  those  whose  faces  we  have  seen  and 
words  we  have  listened  to,  forgetting  the  letters  that  have 
been  read,  look  at  the  real  facts  of  the  world,  I  do  not  think 
that  any  one  can  be  very  hopeful.  The  world  is.  not  yet 
ready  for  freedom  in  religion ;  it  is  not  yet  ready  for  liber- 
alism in  theology ;  it  is  not  yet  ready,  I  think,  to  take  philos- 
ophy as  the  guide  of  life,  although  our  friend  Abbot  asks  us 
all  to  take  it  for  a  guide,  —  I  mean  the  world  as  a  whole.  I 
believe  that  the  world  is  a  rather  discouraging  place  to  live 
in,  unless  we  are  willing  to  face  the  discouragements  fairly 
and  squarely.  In  this  way  only  can  we  afterward  recognize 
and  ascribe  due  weight  to  what  is  encouraging.  The  world 
will  not  rid  itself  of  superstition  for  a  long  time  to  come. 
All  over  Europe  we  can  observe  the  influence  of  supersti- 
tions from  which  we  are  glad  to  fancy  we  have  freed  our- 
selves ;  all  over  the  Asiatic  continent  there  are  innumerable 
superstitions  of  which  we  scarcely  know  the  name,  and 
which  certainly  that  portion  of  the  world  is  not  yet  ready  to 
discard.  Pass  from  Europe  and  Asia  to  Africa, —  that  really 
new  continent  which  has  been  recently  introduced  to  us, 
with  its  teeming  millions  and  fertile  lands,  destined  to  pro- 
duce more  and  more  millions  of  inhabitants, —  and  ask  the 
question.  What  is  to  be  the  condition  of  the  people  of  that 
continent.^  We  are  told  that  the  negroes  there  are  being 
converted  to  Mohammedanism  with  wonderful  rapidity ;  and 
they  are  being  converted  to  Roman  Catholicism,  to  various 


l6  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

superstitious  forms  of  Christianity;  and  these  superstitions, 
which  are  destined  doubtless  to  assist  in  carrying  them 
a  long  step  upward  in  progress,  will  require,  nevertheless, 
hundreds,  perhaps  thousands,  of  years  before  they  can  be 
wholly  thrown  off.  We  know  that  the  barbarians  came 
down  from  the  North  and  overthrew  the  civilization  of  old 
Rome.  Who  will  dare  to  prophesy  concerning  the  over- 
turnings  that  may  yet  come  to  our  modern  civilization,  to 
our  most  advanced  theological  and  philosophical  ideas,  from 
the  superstitions  which  are  still  in  the  world,  and  are  appar- 
ently all  powerful  in  the  world  to-day? 

This  is  my  skeleton,  Mr.  Chairman ;  and  I  believe  in  look- 
ing at  the  skeleton,  whether  we  admire  the  appearance  of 
the  bones  or  not.  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen,  in  a  recent  number 
of  the  North  American  Review,  in  a  very  excellent  article, 
somewhat  pretentiously  entitled  "  The  Religion  of  all  Sensi- 
ble Men," — an  article  somewhat  cynically  phrased,  perhaps, 
but  a  very  readable  article,  nevertheless, —  says,  in  substance, 
that  we  cannot  tell  by  what  superstitions  we  may  be  yet  en- 
gulfed. Take  any  one  of  the  old-time  philosophers  of  two 
thousand  years  ago  or  nearly  that,  and  put  him,  as  some  of 
them  doubtless  were  put,  face  to  face  with  the  philosophy  of 
Marcus  Aurelius,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  superstitions  —  I 
think  I  may  use  this  word  to  this  company  —  of  St.  Paul,  on 
the  other  hand,  and  ask  him  which  would  triumph,  and  he 
would  sneer  at  the  fancy  that  the  theology  of  the  fanatic 
would  win  the  day;  and  yet  it  did.  And  hardly  after  two 
thousand  years  have  we  so  rid  ourselves  of  the  superstitions 
of  the  fanatic  (I  am  not  speaking  of  the  true  things  he 
taught,  but  of  his  dogmatism,  his  visions)  that  we  can  ap- 
proach Marcus  Aurelius  with  unprejudiced  mind, —  that  we 
can  go  back  to  the  old-time  philosophy,  and  recognize  its 
superiority  to  the  theology  which  triumphed  over  it.  The 
lesson  of  two  thousand  years  ago  may  again  come  true  here 
in  our  own  country.  We  like  to  believe  that  we  are  very 
clever  fellows,  that  philosophy  is  running  full  sweep  here  in 
America.  And  yet,  even  if  it  be  so,  some  other  things  are 
running  full  sweep  also ;  and  some  of  these  other  things  are 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  1/ 

more  powerful,  practically  considered,  than  philosophy.  The 
average  intelligence  of  the  American  people  is  not  greater 
than  the  average  intelligence  of  the  Athenians  two  thousand 
years  ago,  is  not  so  great,  I  believe ;  and  yet  they  were 
swept  into  nothingness.  I  do  not  believe  that  we  are  to  be 
swept  into  nothingness  ;  but  I  do  believe,  and  my  point  is 
simply  this,  that  America  to-day,  intellectually,  is  not  in  a 
condition  to  throw  off  old-time  superstitions,  is  not  ready  to 
make  philosophy  the  guide  of  its  life,  is  not  yet  ready  for 
the  profoundest  truths  of  liberalism  in  theology. 

As  an  illustration  of  my  meaning,  consider  for  a  moment 
what  the  bulk  of  our  people  are  going  to  do  during  the 
coming  four  or  five  months.  Two  excellent  men,  Garfield 
and  Hancock,  have  just  been  nominated  for  the  presidency 
by  their  respective  parties.  xA.nd  now  we  are  going  to  lend 
ourselves  to  a  great  hurrah  and  controversy,  which  will  roll 
from  one  end  of  this  country  to  the  other.  We  are  going 
to  spend  our  strength  in  talking,  talking,  talking.  We  will 
gather  in  political  meetings.  We  will  hire  bands  and  listen 
to  their  playing.  We  will  march  through  the  streets  ;  and 
we  will  print  buncombe  speeches.  And  after  it  is  all  over, 
after  an  immense  expenditure  of  time  and  money  and 
strength,  who  will  be  one  bit  wiser  than  he  is  to-day  re- 
garding the  respective  merits  of  Garfield  and  Hancock.? 
Nobody.  Now,  a  people  that  can  lend  itself  to  anything  so 
puerile  as  that  is  not  a  remarkably  intelligent  people  ;  it  is 
not  a  people,  I  mean,  ready  to  make  philosophy  the  guide 
of  its  life,  not  a  people  yet  ready  to  rid  itself  altogether  of 
religious  superstition.  I  believe  that  one  chief  reason  of 
the  early  growth  of  Christianity  is  the  fact  that  it  gathered 
within  its  embrace  the  prevailing  sentiment  of  the  era  in 
which  it  was  born :  it  took  the  good  and  the  bad  together, 
and  therefore  was  adapted  to  the  men  then  living.  And, 
similarly,  I  believe  that  the  religion  which  is  most  powerful 
here  in  America  to-day,  or  which  will  become  most  powerful 
in  the  time  just  before  us,  is  the  religion  which  is  most  in 
harmony  with  a  certain  amount  of  superstition,  which  is  not 
yet  purified,  and  which  will  not  be  purified  to-morrow  or  the 
next  day. 


lis  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

Now,  I  am  done  with  the  skeleton.  Let  us  clothe  it  with 
a  little  flesh  and  blood,  and  give  it  a  more  cheerful  counte- 
nance. I  am  not  hopeless.  I  am  not  discouraged,  notwith- 
standing these  facts  which  I  desire  to  face.  Although  I  be- 
lieve that  the  problem  with  reference  to  the  religion  of  the 
future  is  simply  insoluble  to-day,  because  we  have  not  data 
enough  to  predict  what  it  may  be,  nevertheless,  there  are 
some  things  which  we  do  know, —  we  wise  men,  I  mean, 
who  set  ourselves  up  a  little  bit  above  the  rest  of  the  world, 
and  think  we  have  gone  along  so  far  that  we  have  earned  a 
right  to  call  back  to  others  and  tell  them  something  of  the 
nature  of  the  road  they  are  to  travel.  There  is  one  thing 
which  we  all  can  unite  in  trying  to  do,  and  that  is  to  remove 
morality  from  its  close  clinging  to  the  superstitions  of  the- 
ology. In  the  minds  of  the  greater  number  of  the  people  of 
America  to-day,  morality  and  a  certain  kind  of  childish  super- 
stition, in  matters  of  religion,  are  joined  together  insepara- 
bly. If  the  one  falls,  they  believe  that  the  other  will  fall 
also.  It  is  a  part  of  our  work  to  do  away  with  this  great 
nonsense,  and  that  for  which  I  honor  Mr.  Abbot  more  than 
I  honor  him  for  anything  else, —  and  sometimes  I  have  not 
agreed  with  his  methods,  however  hopeful  he  may  have  been 
with  reference  to  them, —  that  for  which  I  honor  him  more 
than  for  anything  else  is  the  fact  that  he  has  striven  to  di- 
vorce morality  from  dogmatic  superstition,  and  to  teach  the 
people  of  America  that  the  two  things  were  not  necessarily 
connected ;  that  the  old  superstitions  might  die,  but  the 
purest  of  all  pure  moralities  still  remain.  That  is  a  work  for 
us  all  to  engage  in,  friends,  whatever  we  may  call  ourselves. 
Free  Religionists  or  Unitarians,  or  whatever  else, —  to  en- 
deavor to  purify  moral  principles,  to  separate  morality  from 
its  old  associations,  and,  by  keeping  it  apart  from  them, 
strive  to  deliver  Americans  from  the  superstitious  dread, 
now  so  prevalent,  lest  the  decay  of  the  old  faiths  necessarily 
involves  any  lessening  of  noble  aspiration  or  any  lowering  of 
the  standard  of  righteous  living.  I  am  not  discouraged  at 
believing  that  I  am  only  a  unit  in  an  enormous  mass,  for  the 
mass  is  made  up  of  units  ;  and,  if  each  unit  does  its  best,  the 


FAREWELL    DINNER, 


19 


whole  mass  will  come  out  right, —  at  least,  the  unit  will  have 
done  all  that  it  can  be  held  justly  responsible  for.  I  cannot 
penetrate  the  future,  and  I  do  not  even  pretend  to  guess  in 
what  way  the  religious  future  is  coming  out ;  but  I  know 
that,  if  we  do  what  we  can  to  keep  the  future  morally  pure, 
we  may  safely  trust  the  dogmatism  to  take  care  of  itself,  as- 
sured that  it  will  then  take  the  least  injurious  form  that  the 
intelligence  of  the  times  will  permit. 

Dr.  Edward  Wigglesworth  was  introduced  by  the  Chair- 
man as  one  who  knew  Mr.  Abbot  in  boyhood,  and  enjoyed 
the  "Franking  privilege"  ;  and  he  was  asked  to  tell  the  com- 
pany what  he  knew  about  it.     He  said  :  — 

ADDRESS  OF  DR.  WIGGLESWORTH. 

I  feel  rather  like  a  minnow  among  Tritons,  to  get  up  here 
to  say  anything  after  the  speeches  you  have  already  heard ; 
and  my  only  claim  upon  your  favor  is  that  to  which  the 
Chairman  has  alluded.  I  first  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mr. 
Abbot  at  the  Boston  Latin  School,  when  we  were  boys  to- 
gether. At  that  time,  he  was  a  member  of  one  of  the  upper 
classes  ;  but  I  remember  the  respect  with  which  he  was  re- 
garded, not  only  by  the  older  members,  but  by  the  boys  of 
the  whole  school.  Whenever  Mr.  Gardner  wished  to  take 
a  little  relaxation  from  his  labors  and  would  let  some  of  the 
younger  boys  recite  to  the  older  ones,  there  was  always  a 
rush  among  them  to  get  a  chance  to  recite  to  Mr.  Abbot, — 
not  that  he  was  easy  in  his  discipline,  but  there  was  such  a 
clearness  in  his  explanations  of  the  lessons  that  he  always 
made  them  interesting  and  instructive.  When  Mr.  Abbot 
graduated, — I  say  Mr.  Abbot,  although  I  am  happy  to  enjoy 
the  ''Franking"  acquaintance  to  which  the  Chairman  has  al- 
luded,— he  entered  a  class  at  Harvard,  characterized  now  by 
very  remarkable  men.  I  need  only  allude  to  Colonel 
Stickney  as  one  of  them  ;  and  perhaps  the  typical  man  of 
the  class  was  Mr.  Abbot.     I  was  not  in  that  class,  but  had  a 


20  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

sort  of  enU'^e  into  it,  through  several  of  my  relatives  ;  and  I 
know  that,  among  the  very  best  men  in  it,  he  was  regarded 
as  one  of  the  best  morally,  and  the  finest  intellectually,  in 
the  whole  class.  I  lost  sight  of  him  then  for  a  great  while, 
going  away  myself  for  many  years,  till  'about  nine  or  ten 
years  ago  I  returned,  and  heard  of  him  in  Toledo,  as  engaged 
in  the  work  in  which  you  all  know  him,  he  having  pursued 
it  ever  since,  being  connected  with  TJie  Index  and  fighting 
in  every  way  for  the  progress  of  truth  and  freedom  and  lib- 
eral principles.  At  that  time,  he  had  practically  forgotten 
my  existence,  or  nearly  so ;  and  I  wrote,  recalling  myself 
to  his  mind.  And  since  then  I  have  had  the  pleasure,  at 
longer  intervals  than  I  could  have  wished,  of  meeting  with 
him  in  a  more  or  less  familiar  way.  I  can  only  say  that  I 
have  thoroughly  enjoyed  and  profited  by  that  compan- 
ionship. 

With  regard  to  the  sentiments  which  have  been  advanced 
this  evening,  as  I  am  not  at  all  a  speaker  (hardly  ever  made 
a  speech  in  my  life),  I  do  not  say,  ''unaccustomed  as  I  am," 
and  so  forth  ;  but  I  feel  a  little  as  the  man  did  who  was 
stumping  the  State  for  himself,  and  was  unable  to  make  a 
good  speech.  A  very  fluent  and  eloquent  gentleman  was 
stumping  for  the  opposition,  and  they  were  to  make  speeches 
together  one  evening.  The  eloquent  gentleman  had  made 
a  most  brilliant  peroration,  setting  forth  every  thing  that 
would  be  done,  if  the  candidate  he  represented  was  elected, 
and  showing  in  every  way  the  advantages  that  would  accrue 
from  voting  his  ticket ;  and  at  the  end  the  other  gentleman 
rose  and  said,  "  Gentlemen,  what  that  gentleman  has  said  I 
think."  I  entirely  agree  with  what  was  written  by  Mr. 
Mills,  and  cannot  entirely  agree  with  the  jeremiad  of  our 
friend  Mr.  Connor,  although  he  endeavored  to  correct  it  sub- 
sequently. I  think  that  we  have  hope  for  the  future.  I 
think  the  country  is  not  quite  ready  yet  for  the  fate  which  he 
has  served  up  for  it :  it  is  much  as  if  the  servant  said,  ''The 
master  is  not  ready  for  the  dinner."  Of  course  he  is  not,  for 
it  is  not  ready  for  him.  I  think  Mr.  Abbot  has  transferred 
his  natural  modesty  with   reference  to  himself,  in  some  de- 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  21 

gree,  to  the  great  ideas  which  he  advances  ;  and  I  think  that 
he  perhaps  has  not,  and  naturally  has  not,  such  confidence  in 
their  immediate  growth  and  progress  as  those  who  sit  on  the 
outside.  "The  outsiders  see  the  most  of  the  game,"  as  the 
proverb  goes.  I  think  that  his  ideas  are  like  the  roots  of 
the  tree  Ygdrasil,  which  go  down  to  the  roots  of  every 
thing,  and  which,  although  they  have  not  yet  reached  much 
above  the  ground,  will  overshadow  the  whole  earth.  This 
is  more  than  enthusiasm :  it  is  a  hope,  and  a  hope  which 
I  think  is  well  founded.  I  had  no  idea,  when  I  got  up,  of 
saying  as  much  as  I  have.  It  occurred  to  me,  when  our 
Chairman  spoke  about  serving  up  a  man,  that  it  might  be 
desirable  to  serve  him  up  on  toast ;  and  a  little  toast  of  a 
better  man  than  I,  and  in  better  words  than  I  could  use, 
occurred  to  me  at  that  time:  — 

"  Yes  :  we  know  we  must  lose  him;  yet  friendship  may  claim 
To  blend  her  green  leaves  with  the  laurels  of  fame  : 
Though  fondly  at  parting  we  call  him  our  own, 
'Tis  the  whisper  of  love  when  the  bugle  has  blown. 

As  the  rider  who  rests  with  the  spur  on  his  heel, 
As  the  guardsman  who  sleeps  in  his  corselet  of  steel, 
As  the  archer  who  stands  with  his  shaft  on  the  string, 
He  stoops  from  his  toil  to  the  garlands  we  bring. 

So  fill  a  bright  cup  with  the  sunlight  which  gushed 

When  the  dead  summer's  jewels  were  trampled  and  crushed  : 

True  prophet  of  freedom,  our  hearts  hold  him  dear. 

Love  bless  him  !     Joy  crown  him  !     God  speed  his  career  I  " 

In  introducing  Mr.  William  J.  Potter,  the  President  of  the 
evening  said:  *'The  king  is  dead.  Long  live  the  king! 
There  is  still  to  be  an  Index,  and  the  late  lamented  shall 
have  a  successor  in  our  next  speaker,  Mr.  Potter."  That 
gentleman  then  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

ADDRESS  OF  REV.  W.  J.  POTTER. 

Mr.  Chairman, —  I  think  some  of  us  who  are  in  the  habit 
of  speaking  every  Sunday,  and  oftener,  might  envy  the  man 
who  never  makes  a  speech.     I  thought,  sir,  as  I  was  hearing 


22  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

Dr.  Wigglesworth,  that  certainly  his  was  a  most  effective 
speech  ;  and  I  wished  that,  at  least,  I  might  not  come  di- 
rectly after  him.  I  don't  know,  friends,  how  to  speak  to 
you  to-night.  A  banquet  should  be  a  joyous  occasion;  but 
I  cannot  feel  very  joyous  at  this  banquet,  and  I  thought, 
when  we  were  coming  into  the  room  to-night,  that  we  all 
had  a  kind  of  melancholy  tread,  and  a  silence  betokening  not 
a  joyous  occasion,  but  one  necessarily  somewhat  saddened. 
And  yet  I  do  not  know  as  we  ought  to  feel  so.  Of  course, 
there  is  the  breaking  of  associations,  and  this  I  especially 
feel.  I  cannot  claim  to  have  known  our  friend  Abbot  as  long 
as  those  whom  the  Chairman  has  alluded  to,  as  having  grown 
up  with  him  in  his  youth,  and  having  therefore  ''the  Frank- 
ing privilege"  ;  but  I  have  known  him  and  stood  very  close  to 
him  through  all  these  sixteen  years  that  have  been  specially 
the  public  part  of  his  life.  I  first  saw  him  during  the  famous 
Syracuse  Unitarian  Conference,  in  1866.  Before  that,  I  had 
known  him  only  through  certain  articles  of  his  in  the  North 
American  Review  and  the  Christian  Examiner.  It  occurs  to 
me  now  (I  believe  I  never  made  an  acknowledgment  to  him 
before)  that  from  a  certain  article  in  the  Christian  Examiner 
I  cribbed  a  considerable  portion,  and  used  it  in  a  sermon 
[laughter],  making,  however,  acknowledgment  to  my  hear- 
ers. I  had  not  met  Mr.  Abbot  then,  but  there  was  some- 
thing in  that  article  that  brought  him  very  close  to  my  own 
heart  and  my  owii  convictions,  so  that  I  found  in  its  expres- 
sion on  a  certain  topic  words  that  were  more  to  my  own 
thought  than  any  I  could  choose  for  myself.  I  have  never 
been  able,  however,  to  use  the  sermon  since,  because  there 
was  a  special  confession  of  Christianity  in  it,  and,  I  believe, 
in  that  particular  part  that  I  quoted  [laughter]  :  so  it  has 
had  to  go  to  the  bottom  of  the  barrel,  and  I  am  afraid  never 
can  be  resurrected.  At  Syracuse,  we  met  ;  and  yet  I  was 
rather  an  observer  than  an  actor  in  that  contest.  I  had  not 
so  much  hope  of  Unitarianism  or  Unitarian  organizations 
then  as,  perhaps,  our  friend  Abbot  or  some  of  the  younger 
men  had.  I  was  not  born  in  that  denomination.  I  do  not 
know  how  I  got  into  it.     I  have  known  better  how  I  got  out 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  23 

of  it  than  how  I  got  into  it.  [Laughter.]  I  think  at  that 
time,  after  the  war,  there  was  apparently  a  kind  of  new  birth 
in  the  denomination,  at  least  a  struggling  effort  toward  a  re- 
generation, so  that  more  practical  humanitarian  works  might 
be  taken  up.  I  remember  that  the  call  for  the  first  Confer- 
ence in  New  York  sounded  like  a  bugle  summons  for  a  grand 
humanitarian  effort.  I  went  to  that  Conference.  I  was  dis- 
appointed that,  after  all  this  bugle  summons,  there  came  out 
only  a  little  creedlet,  that  produced  immediately  a  theologi- 
cal discussion  and  very  little  humanitarian  work.  But  it 
was  at  Syracuse,  the  next  year,  where  an  attempt  was  made, 
which  has  been  mightier  in  its  results  than  it  was  in  itself, 
to  change  the  form  of  the  original  constitution  so  as  to 
strike  out  the  objectionable  theology,  that  our  friend  Abbot 
made  his  debiU,  really,  into  the  field  of  theological  conflict, 
and  it  was  there  that  I  was  drawn  to  his  side.  After  that 
battle,  which  ended  in  defeat,  but  in  a  Bunker  Hill  defeat, 
there  was  a  gathering  of  the  forces  in  the  minority,  though 
the  minority  was  small ;  and,  before  we  reached  our  homes, 
there  seems  to  have  been  a  kind  of  drawing  together  of 
hearts,  sympathies,  convictions,  on  the  part  of  those  who 
had  been  defeated,  which  finally  culminated  in  the  Free 
Religious  Association. 

From  that  time,  I  have  stood  by  the  side  of  this  friend 
whom  you  have  met  to  honor  to-night,  very  closely, —  our 
hearts  touching  each  other, —  in  seasons  of  joy  and  seasons 
of  sorrow ;  and  it  seems  to  me  to-night  as  if  a  friend  with 
whom  I  had  been  walking  all  my  days  as  my  twin  compan- 
ion were  dropping  away  from  me.  And  yet,  friends,  as  I 
said  at  the  outset,  we  ought  not,  perhaps,  to  bring  these 
personal  thoughts  of  sadness  here,  or  to  feel  for  our  friend 
who  is  going  away  to  another  vocation  any  sadness  at  all, 
but  rather  to  congratulate  him  that  he  is  going  out  from  the 
turmoil  of  conflict  into  a  sphere  of  life  where  his  talents, 
that  are  too  fine  to  be  wasted  in  this  kind  of  contest  and 
abrasion,  can  be  brought  to  bear  more  effectively  for  the 
permanent  welfare  of  mankind.  [Applause.]  And  I  be- 
lieve, I  cannot  help  believing,  that  in  time  that  result  will 


24  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

come.  Our  friend  is  going  into  the  field  of  teaching.  Dr. 
Wigglesworth  has  just  given  a  most  excellent  testimonial  to 
his  capacity  as  a  teacher.  Those  Latin  School  boys  knew 
very  well  where  they  were  to  find  a  good  teacher,  when  they 
competed  with  each  other  in  order  to  get  into  his  recitation- 
room  ;  and  I  am  sure  that  the  boys  who  will  come  under  his 
instruction  in  New  York  (and  I  hope  there  will  be  a  good 
many  of  them)  will  find  him  to  be  the  same  just  and  fair  and 
vivifying  and  inspiring  teacher  and  helper  that  the  boys  in 
the  Latin  School  found  him  to  be.  And  I  do  not  think  that, 
because  he  is  going  into  that  work,  he  is  going  into  retire- 
ment. He  calls  it,  I  know,  ''retirement  from  public  life"; 
but  it  is  utterly  impossible  for  that  man  to  retire  from  public 
life.  [Applause.]  Even  if  he  himself  for  a  time  shall  not  be 
heard-  of  in  the  personal  conflicts  of  battle  over  these  old 
questions,  we  shall  hear  of  his  work  through  some  of  those 
boys  whose  ideas  he  is  to  train  so  that  they  will  be  shooting 
into  intellectual  life,  and  who  will  before  long  be  stepping 
into  the  field  of  conflict  in  public  life.  And  he  himself,  I  be- 
lieve, after  a  few  years  will  be  drawn  again  into  other  work, 
—  he  cannot  help  it,  the  public  will  demand  it, —  he  will  be 
drawn  again  into  work  which  will  satisfy  his  own  best  aspi- 
rations, which  we  as  his  friends  will  be  proud  of,  and  which 
will  lift  his  name  higher  even  than  anything  he  has  yet 
done,  noble  as  that  is,  and  as  beneficial  as  it  has  been  for 
mankind, —  lift  his  name  into  a  permanent  place  where  it 
shall  shine  among  the  intellectual  stars  in  the  firmament  of 
our  American  scholarship  forever. 

The  Chairman  read  letters  from  Messrs.  Learned,  Savage, 
Chadwick,  Collyer,  Curtis,  and  Bellows,  and  then  called 
upon  Rev.  Mr.  Batch elor,  of  Salem. 

ADDRESS  OF  THE  REV.  GEORGE  BATCHELOR. 

If  I  should  speak,  gentlemen,  according  to  my  feeling,  I 
should  take  the  rest  of  the  evening ;  but,  if  I  speak  accord- 
ing to  the  necessities  of  the  case,  I  shall  only  occupy  three 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  25 

minutes.  It  is  nineteen  years  since  I  have  known  our 
friend.  It  would  be  impossible  for  me,  in  the  time  which  I 
may  properly  occupy,  to  tell  all  that  I  know  about  him,  and 
all  that  I  have  received  from  him.  But  you  will  see  that  I 
have  a  peculiar  claim  to  be  here  as  his  friend,  when  I  tell 
you  that  we  were  in  the  same  theological  class  together  ; 
that,  when  I  was  ordained  as  a  Christian  minister,  he  gave 
me  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  ;  that  we  went  together  to 
Syracuse,  a  week  after  my  ordination  ;  that  we  were  at  the 
same  house  ;  that  we  went  through  that  controversy  to- 
gether ;  that  I  sympathized  with  my  brother  then.  But  we 
divided ;  and  he  went  one  way,  and  I  went  the  other.  He 
became  the  editor  of  The  htdex,  and  I  became  the  Secretary 
of  the  "  National  Conference  of  Unitarian  and  other  Chris- 
tian Churches."  But  we  have  stood  together  ever  since  as 
friends,  and  more.  I  have  sympathized  with  all  his  earnest 
work,  although  I  have  not  agreed  with  all  his  propositions. 
I  have  doubted  his  premises,  and  therefore  I  could  not 
accept  his  conclusions.  One  great  mistake  which  he  made, 
and  which  is  illustrated  by  the  speech  of  our  friend  Connor, 
here  to-night,  I  will  take  a  moment  to  speak  of ;  because  it 
seems  to  me  it  illustrates  not  only  principles,  but  the  history 
of  jDrinciples.  Also  our  friend  Potter  has  referred  to  the 
same  thing.  At  the  first  convention,  called  fifteen  years  ago 
in  New  York,  by  the  Unitarians,  it  has  been  truly  said  that 
there  was  a  bugle  call  of  freedom  in  the  name  of  humanity. 
Men  were  called  upon  to  organize.  The  result  was  that 
those  who  issued  the  call,  and  who  had  the  cause  at  heart, 
were  defeated.  That  is  true.  They  were  defeated  inside 
the  ranks  of  Unitarianism  ;  therefore,  it  seemed  to  some  of 
our  friends  logical  and  right  that  they  should  go  outside,  and 
find  outside  this  liberality  which  could  not  be  found  within 
the  organization.  They  went  outside,  and  what  was  the 
result }  They  issued  their  call,  and  they  have  been  defeated. 
That  is  to  say,  there  is  no  such  amount  of  liberalism  within 
the  ranks  of  any  Christian  denomination,  nor  outside  the 
ranks  of  any  Christian  denomination,  as  to  justify  the  ex- 
travagant   anticipations    of   a    speedy    success.      There    has 


26  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

been  no  great  change  in  the  world  outside  in  these  ten 
years.  There  has  been  no  going  backward.  The  simple 
fact  is,  they  went  outside,  expecting  to  find  there  a  paradise 
of  liberalism  ;  and  they  have  found,  scattered  here  and  there, 
a  few  faithful  ones  who  would  stand  by  the  banner,  and  a 
multitude  who  would  not.  I  think  the  history  is  almost 
identical  within  and  without. 

Now  some  of  us  said,  *'  We  will  stay  where  we  are,  and  we 
will  be  true  to  this  proclamation,  and  we  will  stand  by  this 
banner  till  we  have  made  it  possible  for  it  to  have  fulfilment 
in  the  place  where  we  stand."  And  the  years  have  passed  ; 
and  to-day  I  profess  that  we  have  made  advance  toward  that 
standard,  in  the  fulfilment  of  our  professions.  I  have  no 
question  whatever  about  the  future.  I  have  no  doubt  about 
the  future  of  liberalism  :  its  principles  are  founded  in  truth, 
and  they  are  sure  to  prevail.  When  I  came  here,  I  under- 
stood that  we  were  to  sink  the  "shop,"  and  to  come  together 
for  a  little  good  fellowship ;  but  I  have  found,  since  I  came 
here,  that  the  "shop"  would  not  be  sunk, —  that  we  had 
come  here  really  to  celebrate  it;  and  so  I  must  have  my 
little  word. 

But,  in  regard  to  our  friend,  I  have  been  in  intimate 
relations  with  him  during  all  this  time ;  and,  at  this  moment, 
this  is  the  one  thing  that  occurs  to  me  as  being  better  than 
anything  else,  as  an  illustration  of  his  friendship  :  he  is 
almost  the  only  man  I  know  of  who  can  tell  me  I  am  a  blank 
fool,  without  getting  me  mad.  Now  I  value  a  friend  who 
can  do  that.  [Laughter  and  applause.]  He  can  tell  me  to 
my  face,  when  he  thinks  my  arguments  are  folly,  that  "it 
is  discouraging  to  see" — and  he  does  put  in  a  qualifying 
phrase,  he  does  say,  "it  is  discouraging  to  see  —  what  argu- 
ments an  intelligent  man  can  use."  [Laughter.]  He  has  a 
habit  of  that  sort.  If  he  sees  folly,  he  calls  it  folly  ;  and,  if 
he  sees  fraud,  he  calls  it  fraud ;  and  he  doesn't  exactly  see 
why  it  is  that  those  whom  he  characterizes  don't  always  take 
it  kindly.  [Laughter.]  He  simply  states  these  things  as  he 
would  any  other  fact  in  natural  history  :  it  is  a  part  of  his 
science  ;  and  it  is  not  at  all  strange  that  other  people,  who 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  2J 

don't  understand  him,  think  there  is  some  rancor  in  him. 
There  is  not  a  bit :  it  is  simply  cool,  quiet,  scientific  state- 
ment of  fact  as  he  understands  it.  And  I  am  not  a  bit  sorry 
that  he  is  going  to  get  out  of  this  business  that  he  is  in,  for 
this  reason, —  not  because  the  cause  of  liberalism  is  by  any 
means  too  poor  work  for  such  a  man  to  do  :  but,  by  this 
plainness  of  speech,  and  by  the  pecuHar  relations  he  has 
come  into  with  certain  people,  he  has  made  it  impossible  for 
him  to  use  his  best  gifts.  I  had  occasion  to  remark,  when  I 
first  heard  of  this  change  that  was  taking  place,  that  St.  Paul 
—  (I  don't  think  our  Brother  Connor  did  him  quite  justice. 
He  said,  speaking  of  his  superstitions,  that  they  had  won 
the  world;  that  we  hadn't  got  far  enough  away  from  the 
superstitions  of  St.  Paul  to  do  Marcus  Aurelius  justice.  The 
fact  is,  we  haven't  got  far  enough  away  from  St.  Paul's  super- 
stitions to  do  him  justice), —  but  Twas  going  to  remark  of 
him  that  he  was  very  proud  of  having,  on  a  certain  occasion, 
fought  with  beasts  at  Ephesus  ;  but  he  didn't  have  any  idea 
of  taking  it  up  as  a  regular  vocation.  [Laughter.]  I  think 
our  friend  has  too  good  gifts  to  be  wasted  in  that  warfare. 
Let  the  gladiators  fight  with  beasts  ;  but  he  is  not  of  that 
sort,  and  he  has  not  quite  come  to  himself  yet.  There  is  a 
poet  in  him  that  he  is  not  doing  justice  to  now.  By  and  by, 
when  he  gets  into  retirement,  in  the  "  still  air  of  delightful 
studies  "  that  has  been  referred  to,  the  poet  and  the  good 
fellow  will  come  out  again  ;  and  I  think  that  in  the  course  o£ 
ten  years  he  will  do  far  better  work  than  he  could  do  in  any 
controversy,  in  any  contest,  of  this  sort  ;  and  I  believe  that 
we  shall  all  at  last  come  into  a  substantial  unity.  We  have 
been  divided  in  theology,  we  have  been  much  united  in  our 
philosophy  :  I  am  sure  we  are  wholly  united  in  friendship, 
and  I  bid  him  God-speed.  I  am  just  as  ready  now,  as  four- 
teen years  ago,  to  return  the  right  hand  of  fellowship, 
which  I  think  never  has  been  taken  back ;  although  in  the 
peculiar  sense  in  which  it  was  then  offered  it  could  not  now 
be  given.     [Loud  applause.] 

The  Chairman  read  a  long  telegram  from  Dr.  Felix  Adler, 


28  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

and  letters  from  Judge  Hurlbiit,  Rabbi  Schlesinger,  and  Rev. 
Mr.  Voysey,  of  London  ;  after  which  he  called  upon  Dr. 
Horsch,  of  Dover,  N.H. 

REMARKS  OF  DR.  CARL  H.  HORSCH. 

I  was  with  our  friend  in  that  first  fight  in  Dover ;  and  ever 
since  he  and  I  have,  as  we  call  it  in  German,  **  Bruederschaft 
getrunken," — drunk  brotherhood  together.  Talent  and  schol- 
arship, shrewdly  and  cunningly  adapted  to  established  con- 
ditions, to  the  rules  and  notions  of  society,  and  used  for 
selfish  ends,  bring  generally  financial  success  and  reputation 
from  the  masses,  but  not  from  developed  minds.  A  scholar 
who  advocates  truth  for  the  truth's  sake,  and  is  compelled  by 
his  honesty  to  criticise  the  so-called  prominent  men,  and 
expose  falsehood  and  wrong,  has  a  hard  task,  because  the 
masseis  do  not  understand  him.  The  indifferent  do  not  co- 
operate ;  and  those  who  do  or  ought  to  comprehend  and 
appreciate  his  efforts  like  their  easy  and  lucrative  positions 
too  well.  But  we  rejoice  that  a  ten  years'  toil  for  the  better 
conditions  of  humanity,  which  our  dear  friend  Francis  E. 
Abbot  has  carried  out  so  well,  finds  more  and  more  apprecia- 
tion ;  and,  if  evolution  and  progress  do  not  cease,  posterity 
must  yet  accept  and  enjoy  the  principles  which  The  Index 
has  pointed  out,  and  which  we  sincerely  hope  it  will  con- 
tinue to  do.  I  therefore  call  our  meeting  this  evening  the 
"Holy  Supper  of  the  Nineteenth  Century"  ;  and  I  think,  if 
those  good  men,  Socrates,  Jesus,  and  others,  were  living, 
they  would  be  likely  to  be  here  with  us. 

ADDRESS  OF  MR.  SIDNEY  H.  MORSE. 

Having  done  ample  justice  to  two  dinners  this  afternoon 
and  evening,  it  may  be  supposed  that  I  am  pretty  well 
wound  up,  and  ready  for  the  emergency.  But  one  may  be 
wound  up  in  two  ways  :  he  may  be  wound  up  ready  to  go,  or 
so  wound  up  he  can't  go.     Whichever  may  be  my  predica- 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  29 

ment  at  the  present  time,  I  can  certainly  say  as  much  as 
this  :  I  am  truly  glad  to  come  here  to-night,  and  take  part  in 
this  *'  Farewell,  God  bless  you  !  "  to  our  friend.  But  I  must 
also  say  that  my  presence  here  does  not  mean  a  desire  on 
my  part  to  indorse  Mr.  Abbot's  course  during  the  last  three 
years,  nor  for  any  particular  year.  I  take  him  in  the  lump ; 
and  not  because  I  have  agreed  with  him  in  opinion,  for  I 
have  often  found  that  I  did  not,  and  sometimes  should  have 
liked  to  go  and  fight  it  out  with  him.  But  he  has  a  way  of 
insisting  upon  reasons ;  and  it  is  not  always  easy  to  give  a 
reason.  [Laughter.]  So  I  have  adopted  with  him  the  same 
course  which  so  well  serves  me  with  others  from  whom  I 
differ.  In  this  evolutionary  epoch,  one  cannot  go  far  wrong, 
if  he  begins  by  admitting  what  everybody  says,  and  then 
goes  on  with  his  own  beliefs.      [Laughter.] 

I  esteem  Mr.  Abbot  as  a  man  of  convictions.  I  honor 
him  as  an  able  and  earnest  worker.  I  like  him  because  he 
will  say  squarely  what  he  thinks  ;  and  tJiaty  I  take  it,  is  what 
we  should  desire  of  every  man.  We  want  a  free  and  fearless 
expression  of  convictions  on  all  subjects  that  may  arise  for 
our  consideration.  And  we  must  remember  also  that  no 
question  can  be  held  to  be  so  settled  and  sacred  that  there 
may  not  be  entertained  in  different  rninds  more  than  one 
side.  This  is  true  not  alone  of  theological  or  religious  ques- 
tions, but  likewise  of  all  social  and  moral  questions.  And 
what  is  always  needed  is  that  all  people  shall  freely  give  ut- 
terance to  their  convictions,  and  also  exercise  the  broadest 
charity  toward  one  another.  So  only  can  we  get  at  fact 
and  truth.  I  have  come  to  believe  that  there  can  scarcely  be 
an  opinion  so  abhorrent  to  my  own  sense  of  right. but  some 
honest  man  may  hold  it.  Truly,  there  is  no  accounting  for 
opinions.  And  now  I  am  led  to  say  that,  if  there  is  any  one 
thmg  that  may  excite  our  fear, —  and  I  am  not  given  to  fear, — 
if  there  is  anything  we  need  to  fear,  it  is  this  :  that  we  shall 
get  so  into  the  habit  of  saying  "we"  and  **us"  that  we  shall 
not  do  justice  to  others  who  hold  opposing  views.  It  is  the 
partisan  spirit  that  needs  to  be  crushed  everywhere.  We 
must  not  only  listen  to  those  who  totally  disagree  with  us  in 


30  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

their  intellectual  convictions,  but  be  as  ready  to  respect  and 
honor  them  as  if  they  and  we  were  in  closest  harmony.  If 
there  has  been  anything  done  helpful  to  theology,  it  is,  I 
think,  the  ^getting  rid  of  a  Deity  who  would  cast  into  a  hor- 
rible place  all  unbelievers.  We  are  taught  that  Deity  is  in 
some  way  enshrined  in  mankind.  Our  friend  Mr.  Potter 
has  written  of  the  "Divine  Incarnation  in  Humanity,"  Now, 
if  we  have  indeed  got  a  better  Deity, — better  because  he 
does  not  burn  unbelievers, — and  we  are  here  to  represent 
that  Deity  in  our  own  conduct,  why,  we  ourselves  must  not 
burn  them.  If  we  object  to  a  hell  for  such  offenders  be- 
yond, we  must  not  make  one  here  On  the  contrary,  we 
must  so  tolerate  or  appreciate  all  shades  of  conviction  that 
we  can  enter  into  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  all  people, 
and  thereby  be  able  better  to  judge  of  what  they  may  say, 
and  so  fairly  come  to  understand  one  another.  The  great 
mass  of  people,  holding  whatever  opinions,  mean  to  be  hon- 
est, and  are  honest.  We  must  come  together  as  man  with 
man,  brother  with  brother,  neither  saying,  *'  I  am  holier  than 
thou,"  but  each  inviting  the  other,  with  "  Come,  let  us  reason 
together."  So  only  shall  we  get  at  the  truth,  and  fitly  serve 
each  the  other. 

Let  me  say  a  word  in  regard  to  what  was  said  by  friend 
Connor.  I  was  a  little  surprised  at  his  speech  ;  and  yet  I 
must  honor  him  for  making  it,  for  that  is  the  way  he  feels. 
-If  he  had  had  two  dinners,  perhaps  he  would  not  have  felt 
quite  that  way.  [Laughter.]  I  cannot  think  the  country  is 
quite  so  badly  off.  I  can't  believe  that  even  our  Presiden- 
tial contest,  to  which  he  looks  forward  without  pleasure,  is 
going  to  be  so  miserable  a  failure  in  all  respects.  I  don't 
much  care  which  man  wins.  That  will  not  bother  me.  He 
deprecates  the  wrangling  and  confusion,  the  hurrahing  and 
inconsequential  strife.  But  there  is  this  which  all  this  tu- 
mult will  secure, — a  wide-spread  discussion  of  important  top- 
ics ;  not  merely  on  the  stump,  but  it  will  be  all  the  people 
talking  with  one  another,  discussing  the  right  and  wrong  of 
things.  Thus,  whichever  party  or  man  shall  triumph,  an 
educational  process  for  all   the  people   will   be  one  of  the 


FAREWELL    DINNER,  3  I 

results.  I  think  there  is  a  great  principle  lying  somewhere 
between  the  two  parties.  I  am  myself  half  Republican  and 
half  Democrat.  [Laughter.]  I  believe  in  centralization, 
one  way  looking  at  it ;  and  I  believe  in  extreme  State  rights, 
looking  at  that  in  a  certain  way.  There  is  a  question  herein 
involved  yet  to  be  settled,  —  a  great  question,  which  lies 
deeper  than  any  merely  political  movement.  It  is  a  ques- 
tion of  the  kind  of  civil  life  that  shall  prevail  throughout  the 
whole  country.  We  ask,  What  shall  become  of  the  country } 
Shall  the  country  be  equal  to  its  opportunity }  Shall  there 
be  room  for  all  people  to  liveh^x^  and  grow  here, — for  all, 
every  man  and  every  woman,  to  be  himself  and  herself,  and 
make  the  most  of  himself  or  herself,  and  the  best }  It  is 
not,  I  say,  a  question  of  political  fortunes,  but  a  question 
involving  the  social  life  and  growth  of  a  great  people. 

Our  friend  does  not  hope  for  very  much,  at  least  in  the 
near  future.  I  may  say  that  I  have  ceased  to  hope  ;  and  yet 
I  am  not  without  hope  or  its  equivalent.  I  don't  hope  that 
this  or  that  may  happen.  It  really  doesn't  matter.  I  am 
not  cast  down  if  it  does  not,  nor  am  I  greatly  lifted  up  if  it 
does.  For  all  the  time  I  feel  and  know  that  there  is  some- 
thing in  the  heart  of  the  world  that  has  got  to  come  out  of 
it,  and  will  come  out,  in  due  season.  In  short,  the  universe 
has  a  meaning  that  must  and  will  be  expressed.  The  worlds 
—  we  —  are  in  the  process.  So  it  does  not  signify  whether 
the  "millennium"  come  to-day,  to-morrow,  or  a  hundred  or 
a  thousand  years  hence.  It  can't  come  any  faster  than  it 
can  come.  If  I  hadn't  faith  that  this  universe,  this  univer- 
sal life,  meant  this  successful  evolution  and  achievement,  I 
would  end  all  thought  on  the  subject  at  once.  But  I  have 
the  abiding,  ever-present  conviction  that  all  this  agitation, 
all  this  work,  and  all  these  plans, —  all  the  joys,  sorrows,  all 
the  manifold  life  we  are  passing  through, —  mean  —  in  due 
season  —  the  blossoming  of  the  flower  of  humanity.  The 
race  can  no  more  escape  the  achievement  than  it  can  escape 
the  life  it  has  begun. 

So,  you  see,  while  I  do  not  have  hopes,  I  am  not  without 
hope,  in  what  I  believe  to  be  the  largest  and  best  sense  of 
the  word. 


32  FAREWELL    DINNER, 

And  therefore  I  recognize  in  this  work,  in  this  Free  Relig- 
ious movement,  in  what  our  friend  Abbot  has  achieved,  in 
what  others  have  done,  in  what  all  have  done  and  are  doing, 
good  and  helpful  contributions.  There  was  a  time  when  I 
was  much  disturbed  because  the  Unitarians  adopted  for  a 
creed  the  '*  Lordship  of  Christ."  But  I  have  lived  to  see 
even  their  little  creed  become  a  dead  letter. 

Mr.  Ames. —  No! 

Mr.  Morse. —  No  }  The  very  presence  of  our  friend  here 
on  this  occasion  testifies  that  it  is  so.      [Laughter.] 

Well,  this  was  an  entirely  impromptu  speech.  Thoreau 
used  to  say  that  it  takes  a  long  time  to  make  a  thing  short. 
[Laughter.]  Perhaps  if  I  had  been  better  occupied  during 
the  day,  I  might  have  made  it  shorter,  and  have  told  you 
what  I  feel  and  think  better  than  I  have  done.  One  word 
more,  and  I  will  stop.  Let  everybody  say  as  he  thinks,  and, 
whether  what  he  says  be  right  or  wrong,  it  won't  matter ;  for 
if  only  the  Spirit  of  Truth  lead,  it  will  guide  into  all  truth. 
It  is  not  of  so  much  consequence  whether  you  or  I  speak 
the  truth  to-day,  but  whether  we  try  to  speak  it.  Every  one 
so  trying,  with  charity  and  free  toleration  of  one  another, 
instead  of  dividing  more  and  more  into  cliques  or  sects  or 
associations,  we  shall  come  more  and  more  to  realize  that  we 
belong  to  the  whole  race,  and  have  one  common  association 
round  the  globe.     [Applause.] 

REMARKS  OF  URIEL  H.  CROCKER,  ESQ. 

I  did  not  expect  to  be  called  upon  to-night.  I  am  not  a 
talking  man,  and  there  are  so  many  here  who  are  talking 
men  — clergymen  and  ex-clergymen  — that  I  supposed  there 
would  be  no  danger  of  my  being  reached ;  and  I  believe  the 
hour  has  arrived,  too,  at  which  we  agreed  to  adjourn.  I  will 
say,  however,  that  I  am  one  of  the  few  here  that  have  never 
met  Mr.  Abbot  till  to-night  ( I  believe  I  had  only  known  him 
through  7^^^  Index,  and  through  his  published  addresses); 
but  I  felt,  from  what  I  had  known  of  him,  strongly  moved  to 
come,  and,  by  my  mere  presence  as  one,  help  to  give  expres- 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  33 

sion  to  the  feeling  that  I  had  of  honor  for  the  effort  shown 
by  him  in  his  honest  and  earnest  and  self-sacrificing  main- 
tenance of  what  he  believed  to  be  the  truth,  in  endeavoring 
to  help  to  dispel  the  superstitions  that  were  prevalent,  and 
in  trying  to  hold  back  the  body  of  the  liberals  from  rushing 
precipitately,  after  having  given  up  certain  superstitions, 
into  the  adoption  of  every  new  and  crude  idea  as  the  truth. 
It  has  seemed  to  me  that  he  was  one  of  the  few  that  had 
battled  nobly  to  resist  that  tendency.  J^or  that  reason,  I 
was  glad,  and  am  glad,  to  be  here  to  help  to  honor  him. 
[Applause.] 

REMARKS  OF  REV.  W.  H.  SPENCER. 

It  is  too  late  now,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  make  a  speech  ;  but 
I  do  want  to  say  to  Mr.  Abbot  what  I  never  have  said  to 
him,  and  what  I  never  said  to  any  other  man  in  the  world, 
but  what  I  did  say  to  my  wife, —  that  I  felt  under  more 
obligation  to  Mr.  Abbot  for  mental  stimulus  during  the  last 
ten  years,  since  he  has  been  the  editor  of  The  Index,  than  to 
any  other  living  man  in  New  England ;  and  that  is  saying 
considerable.  And  I  believe  that  Free  Religion,  too,  is 
under  more  obligation  to  him  than  to  any  other  man  in  New 
England.  He  has  made  Free  Religion  more  rational  ;  he 
has  defended  it,  I  think,  with  the  best  reasons  ;  he  has 
made  it  more  free,  in  the  best  possible  sense  of  that  word, — 
never  allowing  freedom  to  run  down  into  license  or  licen- 
tiousness ;  and  we  owe  him  an  immense  debt  of  gratitude, 
I  think,  because  he  has  defended  Free  Religion  from  what, 
in  his  letter  just  read,  Mr.  Voysey  well  describes  as  ''the 
dissolute  section  of  the  liberals."  When  she  was  assailed, 
when  her  principles  were  attacked,  Frank  Abbot,  at  consid- 
erable personal  sacrifice,  we  all  feel,  drew  his  sword  and 
defended  her,  and  did  it  manfully.  For  that  we  ought  to  be 
very  grateful.  It  may  be  that  the  result  of  all  this  may  not 
be  seen  in  a  day ;  but,  as  another  letter-writer  says,  it  may 
be  the  stones  which  we  have  been  sinking  in  the  marsh,  and 
which  by  and  by  will  make  a  highway  over  which  the  relig- 


34  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

ion  of  the  future  will  travel  safely.  I  do  not  feel  so  gloomy 
as  Mr.  Connor  does,  by  any  means.  I  feel  very  hopeful  for 
Free  Religion.  I  do  not  know  that  it  will  prosper  as  Free 
Religion,  under  that  name.  But  I  say  that  it  is  infiltrating 
itself  everywhere ;  it  is  honeycombing  all  the  Christian 
sects;  they  are  adopting  our  ideas.  Unitarianism  finds  it 
very  difficult  in  many  places  in  the  West  to  establish  her 
churchCvS,  because  she  finds  already  established  there  some 
orthodox  church  with  a  liberal  minister,  a  minister  who  does 
not  believe  in  eternal  punishment,  or  in  the  deity  of  Jesus  in 
any  proper  sense,  any  more  than  the  Unitarian  minister 
does ;  and  he  is  preaching  it  to  his  people,  and  is  out- 
flanking Unitarianism  in  that  way.  Sometimes  Unitarian- 
ism is  reproached  because  she  is  making  so  little  progress, 
establishing  so  few  churches  ;  but  she  is  growing  under 
another  name.  And  our  ideas  are  growing  under  another 
name;  they  are  saturating  Unitarianism.  And  I  cannot 
agree  with  Brother  Batchelor  that  Unitarianism,  although 
it  is  liberal,  does  stand  essentially  where  we  do.  It  is 
not  so  broad,  I  think,  as  Free  Religion.  We  invite  to  our 
fellowship  not  only  all  those  who,  as  the  Unitarians  say, 
are  ''followers  of  Jesus  Christ,  or  wish  to  be,"  but  those 
who  believe  in  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  and  truth  as  it  is  out- 
side of  Jesus, —  those  who  are  followers  of  truth  wherever  it 
may  lead,  I  wish  to  say  that  to  Mr.  Batchelor,  because, 
like  my  friend  on  my  left  here  [Mr.  Potter],  I  have  felt  that 
I  was  excluded  from  even  the  rather  hospitable  body  of 
Unitarians.  I  am  very  happy  to  be  here  to  express  the  love 
and  admiration  which  I  have  for  our  friend.  This,  I  trust, 
will  not  be  our  last  supper,  by  any  means.  I  hope  he  will 
have  many  more ;  and,  although  Mr.  Abbot  goes  away  from 
us,  I  think  that  that  same  spirit  of  truth  —  what  our  Chris- 
tian friends  call  the  Holy  Ghost  —  which  has  filled  him 
during  the  last  ten  years  will  pursue  him  still,  and  so  pos- 
sess him  that  he  will  be  obliged  to  take  up  the  work  which 
he  now  drops  for  a  moment.     [Applause.] 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  35 

Mr.  Connor  desired  to  add  a  word  of  explanation,  and 
said :  — 

I  am  not  in  the  least  bit  "  gloomy."  I  only  stood  on  one 
side  of  the  question,  the  other  side  of  which  has  been  so 
well  talked  about  by  those  who  have  followed  me.  And  I 
am  very  glad  of  that.  I  never  recognized  so  much  before  the 
advantage  of  speaking  early,  and  having  a  somewhat  crude 
presentation  whipped  into  shape. 

THE  CHAIRMAN'S  CLOSING  WORDS. 

The  hour  for  breaking  up  the  assembly  having  arrived, 
Mr.  Ames  said  :  — 

GentlemeUy — I  think  we  part  to-night  with  something  of 
inward  assurance  that  we  belong  to  each  other  in  a  way  we 
knew  before,  but  never  so  well  comprehended.  It  is  not 
Garfield  nor  Hancock, —  it  is  a  fair  election  ;  and  it  is  not 
your  ism  nor  mine,  but  it  is  fair  and  honest  methods  in  in- 
quiry and  in  action.  Isn't  that  our  platform  and  purpose } 
And  isn't  that  the  central  impression  of  all  we  have  said 
and  tried  to  say,  and  mean  to  do  and  be }  So  help  us 
Heaven,  we  will  carry  it  out  from  this  place,  and  help  to 
make  it  a  part  of  the  public  property  of  the  world.  [Ap- 
plause.] And  you,  my  friend, —  you  have  not  only  pointed 
out  the  way,  but  have  walked  in  it ;  and  our  differences  do 
not  touch  that  central  and  radical  agreement  which  is  the 
most  conservative  thing  in  the  universe.  God  bless  us  every 
one !     Good-night ! 


36  FAREWELL    DINNER. 


THE   LETTERS. 


From  Rev.  John  C.  Learned. 

St.  Louis,  Mo.,  June  18,  1880. 
Rev.  M.J.  Savage  : 

My  dear  Sir, —  I  am  glad  my  friend  Abbot  is  to  have  a  dinner.  Since 
1865,  he  has  been  plentifully  served  with  "gridiron."  Now  let  him  have 
a  dinner!  I  only  wish  there  was  some  way  to  make  it  perpetual.  There 
is  no  man  of  my  acquaintance  who  better  deserves  it. 

Mr.  Abbot  was  a  classmate  of  mine  at  the  Cambridge  Divinity  School. 
It  was  there  that  I  first  conceived  an  admiration  for  his  scholarship  and 
for  his  high  sense  of  honor.  No  man  among  us  read  Greek  so  well : 
and  he  was  master  of  the  rules  of  logic.  His  arguments,  on  any  ques- 
tion that  interested  him,  were  always  worth  hearing, —  though  they  did 
not  always  convince  me  then,  and  have  not  always  done  so  since.  Our 
premises  were  sometimes  different.  For  example,  I  remember  that  once 
we  argued  the  question  of  temperance.  I  was  brought  up  on  the  total- 
abstinence  principle,  and  defended  it.  He  did  not  believe  in  that  doc- 
trine or  practice, —  denied  that  it  could  properly  be  called  temperance, 
and,  to  clinch  the  argument,  cited  the  example  of  "  our  Lord  and  Sav- 
iour," who  drank  wine  with  his  disciples  !  It  was  in  vain  that  I  quoted, 
in  desperation,  from  an  elaborate  sermon  of  the  Plummer  Professor,  re- 
cently preached  to  the  Harvard  students,  showing  that  Jesus  and  the 
twelve  used  only  the  unfermented  juice  of  the  grape.  (We  both  of  us 
know  that  that  argument  was  as  weak  as  water !) 

Though  I  am  nearly  as  good  a  total-abstinent  to-day  as  I  was  then, 
yet  I  will  now  admit  that,  on  "  Christian  grounds,"  he  had  the  advantage 
of  me  in  the  discussion.  In  other  words,  at  that  time,  I  feel  sure,  he 
was  a  better  "  Christian  "  than  I  was  ;  and  he  knows  how  it  was  himself. 

To  speak  more  seriously,  however,  the  man  whom  this  festival  was 
meant  to  honor  by  his  presence  honors  all  who  gain  admission  to  the 
feast.  I  wish  it  were  possible  for  me  to  be  there,  for  old  friendship's 
sake,  for  present  congratulations,  and  for  the  "  great  expectations  "  we 
all  cherish  of  his  services  to  truth  nnd  humanity  in  new  fields  of  thought 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  37 

and  labor.  It  is  a  rare  thing,  in  any  century,  that  men  meet  to  compli- 
ment such  worth  and  work  as  is  identified  with  the  name  of  Francis 
E.  Abbot.  Heroism  is  of  many  kinds.  Every  age  can  furnish  heroes  of 
some  sort.  But  the  moral  hero, —  the  man  who  can  speak  truth  when 
others  dissemble,  who  dares  to  trust  th^  naked  truth  in  the  face  of  armed 
and  overwhelming  majorities,  who  stands  for  conscience  and  character 
in  an  age  of  immoralities, —  rarest  of  all, —  surely  such  a  man  deserves 
the  right  hand  of  our  approval  and  fellowship. 

"  Such  earnest  natures  are  the  fiery  pith, 

The  compact  nucleus  round  which  systems  grow; 
Mass  after  mass  becomes  inspired  therewith, 
And  whirls  impregnate  with  the  central  glow." 

Accept  my  thanks  for  the  invitation  to  be  with  you,  and  my  regrets 
that  I  cannot  take  my  place  at  the  table,  and  believe  me, 

Very  sincerely  yours,  Jno.  C.  Learned. 


From  the  Rev.  Edward  C  Towne. 

Underbank  Parsonage,  Stannington, 
Near  Sheffield,  England. 
Rev.  M.  J.  Savage: 

Dear  Sir, —  If  I  could  possibly  arrange  it  on  so  short  notice,  I  should 
cross  the  Atlantic  to  join  Mr.  Abbot's  friends  in  the  greeting  of  affection 
and  sympathy  and  honor  which  they  will  give  him  on  the  twenty-fifth. 

The  motion  for  keeping  Unitarianism  liberal  and  our  Christianity  free, 
which  Mr,  Abbot  made  at  Syracuse,  and  made  in  vain,  it  fell  to  me  to 
second.  If  that  motion  were  to  be  made  now,  Unitarianism  itself,  not 
only  by  its  younger  leaders,  but  by  its  elder,  would  eagerly  second  it, 
and  with  an  acclaim  of  pride  and  respect  toward  Mr.  Abbot  which  few 
men  ever  win.  The  denial  of  the  petition  made  at  Syracuse  by  Mr. 
Abbot  led  to  the  founding  of  the  club  first  called  the  Free  Religious 
Club,  and  afterwards  the  Radical  Club,  and  to  the  organization  of  the 
Free  Religious  Association.  Every  incident  of  that  history  is  as  fresh 
before  me  as  if  but  yesterday;  and  I  am  confident  that,  from  first  to 
last,  the  grace  and  truth  of  Mr.  Abbot's  participation  in  it  were  singu- 
larly clear  and  pure  and  genuine.  I  believe  there  is  no  doubt  that  Mr. 
Abbot  deliberately  sacrificed  a  valuable  and  distinguished  appointment 
at  Harvard  University  to  keep  truth  with  his  conscience  by  his  Syra- 
cuse protest:  and  I  know  that  a  like  appointment  at  Cornell  University 
would  have  fallen  to  him,  had  not  those  who  confessed  his  unexampled 
claims  felt  bound  to  conciliate  prejudice  by  preferring  a  man  who  had 
the  high  candor  to  say,  "Against  Mr.  Abbot  I  have  no  claim."     Those 


38  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

who  were  responsible,  at  New  York  and  at  Syracuse,  for  an  orthodox 
bolt  on  the  door  of  Unitarian  communion,  did  wrong  and  injury  in 
more  than  one  case,  as  real  and  cruel  as  any  ever  done  by  persecuting 
vigor.  There  were  wounds  inflicted  then  which  have  not  yet  ceased 
to  bleed.  The  best  that  courage  and  self-devotion  and  patient  endur- 
ance could  accomplish,  to  make  a  career  outside  the  lines  of  inherited 
opportunity,  has  been  done  by  Mr.  Abbot  during  the  decade  of  toils 
and  ti-ials  which  has  now  reached  a  close.  Between  a  liberalism  that 
was  faithless  and  a  libertinism  that  was  shameless,  Mr.  Abbot  had  to 
stand  doubly  unsupported ;  but  he  has  stood  increasingly  triumphant  to 
the  end,  and  he  leaves  his  post  without  a  stain. 

My  own  experience  shows  me  how  extreme  is  the  difficulty  of  making 
a  great  breach  with  tradition,  and  a  great  battle  over  untried  ground  for 
a  new  field  and  new  lines  of  religious  and  humane  activity.  My  conclu- 
sion has  been  that  Unitarianism  went  outside  of  genuine  Christianity 
when  it  decreed  to  keep  a  survival  of  worship  of  the  "  Lord  Jesus  "  ; 
and  I  hold  that  the  identical  mind  that  was  in  Christ  has  remained  un- 
abated, undimmed,  and  illustrious  in  the  character,  the  conscience,  the 
career  of  toil  and  sacrifice  and  renunciation,  for  which  your  festival  of 
affection  and  sympathy  will  make  a  sacramental  celebration.  I  ardently 
hope  that  Mr.  Abbot  has  another  career  yet  before  him,  of  noble  study 
in  many  directions,  and  of  counsels  of  wisdom  and  learning  and  conse- 
cration by  which  religion,  social  progress,  morals,  philosophy,  and  poli- 
tics may  greatly  benefit.  To  whatever  motion  of  honor  to  him  may  be 
made,  I  beg  to  give  my  most  hearty  second  and  most  cordial  applause, 
fervently  trusting  that  the  sweetness  and  light  which  Mr.  Abbot  has 
ever  kept  within  himself  may  henceforth  fall  all  about  him  to  make 
bright  and  glad  his  every  step. 

I  am,  dear  sir, 

Yours  faithfully, 

Edward  C.  Towne. 


From  Mr.  Charles  D.  B.  Mills. 

To  Rev.  M.  J.  Savage,  Rev.  W.  J.  Potter,  and  others  of  the  Com- 
mittee : 
Dear  Friends^ —  Your  kind  invitation  to  me  to  be  present  and  partici- 
pate in  the  enjoyments  of  the  occasion  that  your  circular  describes  has 
been  received.  Be  assured  that  nothing  would  give  me  greater  pleasure 
than  to  unite  with  you,  and  others  who  may  be  there,  in  rendering  this 
mark,  slight  token  as  it  is,  of  honor  to  the  name  and  services  of  the  re- 
tiring editor  of  The  Index.  But  to  attend  will  be  out  of  my  power.  I 
can  be  present,  therefore,  with  you  only  in  spirit. 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  39 

There  ivS  no  name,  certainly  in  our  country,  whom  I  more  cordially 
esteem  —  none  that  I  more  deeply  love,  and  with  all  my  heart  would 
bless  —  than  Francis  E.  Abbot. 

I  knew  of  Mr.  Abbot  first  in  1866  (I  think  it  was),  at  the  time  of  the 
holding  of  the  National  Conference  of  the  Unitarian  Churches,  in  this 
city.  His  brave  and  memorable  protest  in  that  Convention  I  have 
always  remembered.  I  was  not,  however,  at  that  time  so  fortunate  as 
to  have  heard  him  on  the  floor  of  the  Conference,  or  to  have  made  his 
personal  acquaintance.  Later,  I  heard  of  and  saw  extracts  from  the 
sermons  of  the  young  preacher  in  Dover,  N.H. ;  and  later  still,  but  not 
long  after,  I  became  acquainted  with  the  projected  enterprise  of  pub- 
lishing The  Index  at  Toledo,  Ohio. 

The  protest,  the  sermons,  the  withdrawal  from  the  denomination  he 
had  stood  connected  with,  prompted  by  deep,  conscientious  convictions, 
the  prospectus  of  The  Index,  and  the  utterances  of  that  paper, —  these 
all,  and  increasingly  as  they  came,  won  my.  respect  and  approval;  and, 
from  that  first  day  to  the  present,  I  have  marked  the  course  of  this 
protestant  and  earnest  apostle  of  truth  and  liberty  with  ever-deepening 
interest  and  ever-growing  admiration. 

He  has  struck  stalwart  blows  for  freedom  ;  he  has  borne  invaluable 
testimony  for  a  principle  in  religious  faith  which  must  have  more  and 
more  recognition  and  cordial  honor  in  ages  to  come,  as  the  mind  of  man 
expands,  becomes  more  thoughtful,  wise,  and  free.  His  service  in  this 
behalf  has  been  priceless.  The  cause  of  Free  and  Rational  Religion 
in  our  country,  and  through  the  world,  owes  him  a  debt  deeper  than  can 
ever  be  cancelled. 

In  the  defence  he  has  made  latterly,  especially,  of  the  principles  of 
morality, —  showing  that  liberty  is  not  license,  that  the  restraints  and 
guidance  of  a  just  morality  are  not  annulled  or  broken,  they  are  rather 
confirmed  and  strengthened  in  the  emancipation  from  a  dogmatic  and 
limitary  religion, —  he  has  done  also  an  inestimable  service.  Here,  too, 
we  have  occasion  to  hold  him  in  high  honor. 

Our  brother  has  stood  for  us  and  for  humanity.  He  has  wrought, 
through  all  these  years  of  toil  and  sacrifice,  for  liberty,  and  for  interests 
in  which  we  all  have  vital  stake. 

I  offer,  if  in  order  for  your  occasion,  my  sentiment :  — 

Our  esteemed  guest,  whose  clear  perceptions  have  been  equalled 
alone  by  his  dauntless  courage, —  to  whom  truth  was  majesty  supreme, 
with  whom  to  see  was  to  do,  to  be  commanded  of  Heaven  was  to  obey. 
His  unswerving  devotion  we  warmly  honor,  his  work  and  example  we 
cherish  with  deep  gratitude  and  love, —  we  hold  in  remembrance,  and 
commend  them  for  quickening  and  inspiration.  Our  benedictions  follow 
him.  May  his  work,  in  whatever  field  in  the  future,  be  crowned  with  a 
success  as  complete,  a  recognition  as  wide  and  cordial,  as  his  labors 


40  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

during  the  past  in  behalf  of  Free  Religion,  and  the  enduring  claims  of 
a  true  morality,  have  been  arduous,  self-sacrificing,  and  untiring. 
I  remain,  with  sincere  sympathy,  and  best  wishes  ever. 

Yours  fraternally,  Chas.  D.  B.  Mills. 

Syracuse,  N.Y.,  June  23,  1880. 


From  Mr.  E.  W.  Meddaugh. 

Detroit,  June  23,  1880. 

Getttlemen^  —  I  briefly  replied  some  days  since  to  a  note  of  invitation 
to  be  present  and  participate  at  a  dinner  in  honor  of  my  esteemed  friend, 
Mr.  Abbot ;  but  I  cannot  permit  the  occasion  to  pass  without  adding  a 
few  words  beyond  the  formal  regret  for  my  enforced  absence. 

As  one  of  the  Directors  of  the  Index  Association  from  its  organiza- 
tion to  its  dissolution,  and  as  his  friend,  I  have  had  personal  knowledge 
of  some  of  the  difficulties  that  Mr.  Abbot  has  had  to  contend  with  in  his 
work  for  the  past  nine  years.  Himself  actuated  by  motives  as  high  and 
pure  as  ever  moved  man  to  action,  and  filled  with  a  spirit  of  zeal  for 
helping  his  fellows  to  a  higher  and  better  life,  he  began  the  publication 
of  The  Index.  He  was  young,  and  hope  was  buoyant  in  him.  The 
future  seemed  full  of  promise,  —  not  of  personal  gain  or  advantage  to 
himself  (for  of  this  he  took  no  thought),  but  of  opportunity  for  the  great 
work  of  reform  to  which  he  had  dedicated  his  life. 

He  has  met  with  reverses.  He  has  not  realized  that  full  measure  of 
success  which  he  not  only  hoped  for,  but  expected.  The  Index,  which 
to  most  of  its  readers  for  the  past  ten  years  has  been  a  synonyme  for 
Abbot,  which  he  created,  and  with  which  are  associated  in  his  mind  the 
most  cherished  desires  of  his  life,  is  about  to  pass  from  his  hands; 
and  he  is  compelled  to  abandon  this  chosen  field  of  labor  and  usefulness 
for  another,  which  is  not  of  his  choice,  but  is  born  of  necessity.  Such 
an  occasion  would  be  a  trying  one  to  any  of  us,  and  it  is  the  more  so  to 
our  friend  from  the  profoundly  earnest  and  deeply  rooted  purpose  of  his 
soul,  which  is  thus  temporarily  thwarted  of  its  object. 

But,  while  tendering  to  Mr.  Abbot  the  sympathy  of  our  hearts  in  his 
disappointment,  we  should  but  poorly  perform  the  friendly  office,  if  we 
failed  to  reverse  the  shield,  that  he  may  see  the  other  side.  In  these 
years  of  editorial  labor,  he  has  accomplished  a  noble  work.  Both  by 
precept  and  example,  he  has  helped  many  poor  souls  to  a  clearer  per- 
ception of  the  duties  of  life,  and  to  the  strength  for  performing  them. 
He  has  taught  them  that  there  is  a  foundation  for  pure  ethics  outside  of 
the  lex  scripta,  and  by  his  example  has  demonstrated  the  practicability 
of  living,  not  only  by  it,  but  up  to  it  The  influence  of  his  teaching  and 
example  will  continue  to  bear  abundant  and  rich  fruit,  through  the  lives 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  4I 

and  labors  of  his  disciples,  that  will  testify  to  the  grand  success  of  his 
life  and  work,  though  he  should  "  end  all  here." 

But,  invaluable  as  has  been  his  work  of  the  past,  it  is,  if  life,  health, 
and  opportunity  permit,  but  a  preface  to  the  great  volume  that  is  to 
come.  The  world  cannot  spare  Francis  Ellingwood  Abbot  from  the 
field  of  philosophical  thought ;  and  there  is  a  grave  duty  resting  upon 
us,  who  know  and  appreciate  his  value  here,  to  see  to  it  that  no  circum- 
stance within  our  control  is  suffered  to  drive  him  from  it.  Let  us,  then, 
avail  ourselves  of  this  social  occasion,  not  alone  to  wish  him  a  hearty 
God-speed  in  the  business  upon  which  he  is  entering,  but  to  comfort  and 
cheer  him  with  the  pledge  of  our  substantial  aid,  should  it  be  required, 
to  the  end  that  he  may  continue  his  philosophical  studies,  and  labor  for 
the  furtherance  of  truth  and  the  well-being  of  mankind. 

E.  W.  Meddaugh. 

To  Rev.  M.  J.   Savage  and  others,  Committee,  etc.,  Boston. 


From  the  Rev.  Charles  Voysey. 

Camden  House,  Dulwich,  London,  S.E., 

June  7,  1880. 
To  the  Rev.  M.  J.  Savage: 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  regret  exceedingly  that  the  wide  Atlantic  prevents  my 
being  present  at  the  complimentary  dinner  to  be  given  to  my  dear  and 
esteemed  friend,  Francis  Ellingwood  Abbot.  I  have  a  grateful  recol- 
lection of  the  years  during  which  I  served  under  him  as  a  modest 
contributor  to  The  Index.  For  kindness  and  courtesy  to  his  staff,  he 
could  not  be  surpassed.  But,  apart  from  all  personal  considerations,  I 
have  admired  Mr.  Abbot  as  in  every  inch  of  him  an  honest,  courageous, 
and  pure-minded  man.  His  attitude,  of  late  years  especially,  toward 
the  dissolute  section  of  free-thinkers  and  so-called  liberals,  commands 
our  warmest  applause.  "Abbot  and  The  Index''''  will  be  remembered 
generations  hence  as  the  savior  of  the  cause  of  true  liberty  of  thought, 
by  claiming  and  demanding  that  before  all  things  it  should  be  decent. 
I  only  wish  that  our  common  gratitude  could  find  some  solid  expression 
in  giving  to  our  friend  Abbot,  for  the  rest  of  his  life,  absolute  immunity 
from  worldly  cares.  If  any  such  testimonial  is  started,  I  beg  you  kindly 
to  give,  me  the  earliest  opportunity  of  subscribing  towards  it. 
I  am,  dear  sir,  very  faithfully  yours, 

Charles  Voysey. 


42  -  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

From  Gen.  Rohert  J.  Turnbull. 

Westchester,  June  5,  1880. 
The  Rev.  M.  J.  Savage  and  Members  of  the  Committee : 

Gentiemejt, —  As  your  note  of  invitation  was  only  received  a  few  days 
ago  on  my  return  from  the  South,  my  reply  has  been  necessarily  delayed. 
I  should  be  rejoiced  to  be  one  of  the  company  on  the  occasion  of  the 
dinner  to  our  admired  friend,  Mr.  Abbot,  but  regret  that  family  duties  at 
that  time  render  it  impossible  for  me  to  be  absent  from  home. 

I  cannot,  however,  at  this  time  forbear  recording  my  testimony  to  the 
expanding  and  enlightening  influence  that  Mr.  Abbot's  editorship  of  The 
Index,  with  its  purity  of  moral  sentiment  and  elevating  tone,  free  from 
all  taint  of  superstition,  has  had  upon, my  mind  during  the  decade  that  I 
have  been  its  constant  reader.  The  paper  was  first  brought  to  my  notice 
by  my  valued  friend,  Mr.  A.  Warren  Kelsey,  also  a  frequent  contributor 
to  its  columns,  during  the  dark  days  at  the  South  that  followed  the  close 
of  the  war,  when  failure  and  ruin  in  that  section  seemed  to  follow  every 
enterprise,  however  well  conceived  or  faithfully  executed.  In  the  isola- 
tion of  a  bachelor's  life  upon  a  remote  plantation,  its  advent  was  then 
like  a  ray  of  light  from  a  brighter  world ;  and  its  strong  reliance  upon 
natural  resources  and  upon  our  own  natural  endowments,  for  the  solu- 
tion of  all  difficulties,  was  a  tower  of  strength  to  the  mind  in  dealing 
with  the  trials  and  disappointments  of  the  situation,  and  I  think  in  my 
own  case  has  contributed  much  to  a  result  which  I  think  I  may  consider 
a  partial  success,  where  there  has  been  little  else  than  failure. 

That  this  life  is  worth  living  for  its  own  sake,  and  that  as  a  duty,  as 
well  as  a  pleasure,  we  should  live  in  action,  has  appeared  so  clearly  from 
its  pages  and  his  pen  that  the  scene  of  labor  has  seemed  invested  with 
a  new  interest,  and  as  leading  to  issues  in  a  fruitful  future,  notwithstand- 
ing the  encouragements  which  seemed  to  be  wanting  to  the  eye  of  faith. 

In  whatever  channel  the  labors  of  Mr.  Abbot  may  hereafter  be  di- 
rected, there  is  none,  I  am  sure,  where  their  spirit  will  be  more  missed, 
and  where  greater  regret  will  follow  their  cessation,  than  as  editor  of 
The  Index.  Yours  very  truly, 

Robert  J.  Turnbull. 


From  Prof.  Ezra  Abbot,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Rev.  M.  J.  Savage  : 

Dear  Sir,  —  Please  accept  my  thanks  for  your  invitation  to  attend  the 
dinner  in  honor  of  Francis  E.  Abbot.  I  have  been  hoping  to  be  present, 
but  find,  to  my  great  regret,  that  it  will  be  out  of  my  power.  Though 
our  opinions  are  different  on  some  important  subjects,  no  one  could  join 
more  heartily  in  a  testimonial  of  respect  for  his  noble  character.     His 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  43 

disinterestedness,  earnestness,  courage,  honesty,  and  purity,  conjoined 
with  remarkable  intellectual  ability,  have  long  commanded  my  highest 
admiration.  He  is  one  whom  no  motive  could  tempt  for  a  moment  to 
swerve  from  fidehty  to  his  convictions  of  Truth  and  Right.  It  is  of  such 
stuff  that  heroes  and  martyrs  are  made. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Ezra  Abbot. 


From  ex-Judge  E.  P.  Hurlbut. 

Albany,  June  14,  1880. 
Messrs.  M.  J.  Savage,  W.  J.  Potter,  and  others  :  , 

Gentlemen,  —  My  time  of  life,  and  the  distance  (reckoned  by  miles) 
between  us,  prevent  my  attendance  at  the  dinner  to  Mr.  Francis  E. 
Abbot.  Yet  the  distance  is  only  of  miles,  for  I  am  near  you  in  spirit, 
and  shall  be  proud  to  be  recorded  as  of  the  number  who  rendered  due 
honor  to  the  manly  worth,  the  enlightened  intellect  and  moral  tone  of 
the  editor  of  The  Index. 

It  is  rare,  in  this  world  of  ours,  to  find  a  man  who  combines  the  intel- 
lect to  form,  and  the  moral  courage  to  avow  and  defend,  in  the  face 
of  all  prejudice,  opinions  at  variance  with  those  of  the  large  majority 
of  his  fellow-men,  placing  himself  remote  from  the  sympathies  of  his 
contemporaries,  — 

"  Above  life's  weakness,  and  its  comforts  too," — 

simply  for  truth's  sake.  Yet  Mr.  Abbot  is  such  a  man,  —  one  "quit  of 
the  priests  and  books,"  who  has  attained  from  the  first  to  the  fourth 
good  rule  of  Gautama,  "  Right  doctrine,  right  purpose,  right  discourse, 
and  right  behavior." 

On  two  great  points  which  he  has  made  prominent  in  The  Index  and 
advocated  with  singular  ability,  —  the  correction  of  religious  opinions  by 
the  light  of  science  and  the  complete  secularization  of  the  State,  —  he 
will  live,  I  hope,  to  find  himself  with  the  majority. 

On  another  point, — the  advocacy  of  a  pure  morality,  based  on  the 
natural  laws,  amid  the  wreck  of  ancient  myths  and  superstitions, — 
Mr.  Abbot  has  labored  long  and  well,  being  all  the  while  "the  best- 
abused  man  "  among  us.  Yet  he  and  his  paper  have  survived,  —  himself 
to  flourish  in  some  other  field  of  usefulness  to  his  fellow-men,  and  the 
paper  to  be  still  welcomed  by  the  leading  minds  of  America  and  Europe, 
which  have  hitherto  appreciated  it  so  highly. 

I  would  write  much  more,  but,  on  occasions  Hke  yours,  brevity  is  a 
virtue ;  and  I  content  myself  with  adding  my  kindest  wishes  for  Mr. 
Abbot  and  those  who  honor  him. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

E.  P.  Hurlbut. 


44  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

From  Mr.  George  William  Curtis. 

West  New  Brighton,  Staten  Island,  N.Y., 

June  21,  1880. 
My  dear  Sir,  —  I  am  very  much  obliged  by  the  kind  invitation  to  the 
dinner  to  Mr.  Abbot,  and  I  am  very  sorry  that  I  cannot  accept  it  It  is 
a  tribute  of  honor  to  a  scholar  who  has  resolutely  maintained  the  three 
fundamental  American  rights,  —  the  three  in  one,  and  the  only  trinity 
which  probably  he  would  be  willing  to  acknowledge :  free  thought,  free 
speech,  and  a  free  press.  All  friends  of  moral  and  intellectual  liberty, 
who  know  how  subtle,  but  how  strong,  are  the  influences  arrayed  against 
it,  will  gladly  unite  both  in  testifying  their  regard  and  sympathy  for  one 
who  has  served  the  cause  so  faithfully  as  Mr.  Abbot,  and  in  wishing  him 
prosperity  in  his  new  career. 

With  great  regard,  very  truly  yours, 

George  William  Curtis. 


From  Rev.  Henry  W.  Bellows,  D.D. 

New  York,  232  E.  15,  May  30,  1880. 

Dear  Mr.  Savage,  —  I  shall  not  be  able  to  join  your  dinner  to  Mr. 
Abbot,  for  I  have  just  lost  a  very  dear  brother,  and  shrink  from 
festivities. 

I  am  none  the  less  glad  that  Boston  is  ready  to  testify  its  respect  for 
the  manly  coura2;e  and  conscientious  verity  of  my  honored  friend,  Mr. 
Abbot,  with  whose  special  views  I  have  no  great  sympathy,  but  with 
whose  pure  spirit  and  self-sacrificing  fidelity  I  have  boundless  fellow- 
feeling.  I  wish  you  the  greatest  success  in  giving  Mr.  Abbot  a  hearty 
send-off  from  his  editorial  ofiice.  We  shall  welcome  him  in  New  York, 
where  we  hear  he  is  coming,  with  lively  expectations  of  his  success  in 
his  new  calling  as  classical  teacher :  and  we  hope  to  give  him  all  the 
support  he  desires. 

V^ery  cordially  yours, 

Henry  W.  Bellows. 


From  Prof.  William  T.  Harris. 

St.  Louis,  Mo.,  June  22,  1880. 
Rev.  M.  J.  Savage  : 

Dear  Sir, —  It  would  give  me  great  pleasure  to  be  with  you  on  the 
occasion  of  the  dinner  to  Mr.  Francis  E.  Abbot,  but  the  necessity  of 
visiting  Missouri  and  Arkansas  this  week  renders  it  impossible.  I 
share  with  you  in  the  desire  to  show  some  token  of  respect  and  regard 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  45 

for  Mr.  Abbot,  who  has  given  such  a  rare  example  of  honest,  manly 
character  to  the  world.  I  trust  he  may  yet  long  continue  to  be  as 
helpful  to  us  as  in  the  past. 

Respectfully  yours, 

W.  T.  Harris. 


From  Rev.  Moncure  D.  Conway. 

Dear  Mr.  Savage, —  I  regret  that  my  departure  for  America  this  year 
will  be  a  little  too  late  for  me  to  avail  myself  of  the  invitation  with  which 
your  Committee  have  honored  me.  I  have  met  many  a  worthy  soldier 
of  truth  and  justice  at  Young's,  but  none  more  valiant  in  a  cause  he 
holds  true  than  Francis  E.  Abbot.  When  he  ran  up  his  little  paper- 
banner  at  Toledo,  it  was  something  like  Garrison  running  up  his  small 
Liberator.  The  latter  has  become  a  historic  flag  of  liberty,  and  the 
former  will  not  be  forgotten  or  unsung  in  the  day  when  America  wears 
as  her  jewels  the  names  of  those  who  set  free  her  heart  and  brain.  ^ 

Your  honored  guest  is  less  known  to  me  personally  than  to  most  of 
those  who  will  gather  around  him.  I  have  known  him  mainly  through 
The  Index.  I  have  sometimes  differed  from  his  opinions,  and  he  per- 
haps oftener  from  mine, —  if  that  isn't  an  Irishism:  therefore,  it  will  not 
be  thought  the  partiahty  of  personal  friendship,  when  I  say  that  Francis 
E.  Abbot  appears  to  me  to  be  one  of  the  few  distinctly  religious  men 
who  have  never  drawn  a  line  against  freedom  of  thought.  That  which 
was  called  the  Theistic  move'ment  in  England  is  declining,  as  I  think, 
simply  because  those  who  pioneered  it  came  to  a  point  beyond  which 
they  could  not  move  in  the  direction  of  liberty.  There  are  some  who 
feel,  with  Spinoza,  that  to  define  God  is  to  destroy  him  ;  whose  only 
clear  conceptions  in  that  direction  are  such  as  are  defined  against  such 
defiifitions.  I  am  one  of  these,  and  must  say  that  the  more  constructive 
Theists  speak  of  us  and  our  negative  position  in  an  unfriendly  way, — 
some  of  them  sharply  enough  to  suggest  that  their  deity  is  not  far 
evolved  beyond  that  earlier  one  supposed  to  be  so  anxious  about  human 
notions  concerning  him.  Among  the  songs  which  the  late  Professor 
Clifford  composed  while  at  Cambridge,  and  which  the  students  there 
still  sing,  one  has  a  verse  runnmg :  — 

"  If  you  and  God  should  disagree 
On  questions  of  Theologee, 
You're  damned  to  all  Eternitee, 
Poor,  blind  worm !  " 

The  song  will  no  doubt  be  sung  so  long  as  even  liberal  minds  are  so 
often  found  defending  certain  views  as  if  religion  and  moral  life  de- 
pended on  them, —  which  were  as  much  as  to  say  that  one  cannot  fall 
in  love  without  holding  certain  physiological  or  metaphysical  theories 


46  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

of  his  sweetheart's  nature.  The  little  difficulty  about  this  proposition 
is  that  it  is  not  true.  And  Mr.  Abbot  has  recognized  that  it  is  not. 
While  meeting  opinion  with  argument,  he  has  not  added  any  sting  such 
as  men  use  on  each  other  when  they  are  aiming  to  please  God.  He 
has  spoken  strongly  when  the  interests  of  morality  seemed  to  him  at 
stake ;  but  even  in  that  controversy  I  cannot  remember  that  Mr.  Abbot 
has  appealed  to  theological  prejudice  or  claimed  that  The  Index  was 
an  organ  inspired  by  God.  These  appear  to  me  rare  merits.  So  long 
as  human  society  and  the  human  mind  are  left  free  to  follow  a  natural 
evolution,  I  believe  they  will  steadily  gain  in  wisdom,  truth,  and  virtue  : 
no  error  or  fiction  will  remain,  there  can  be  no  survival  of  the  unfittest, 
unless  the  arrest  come  through  some  phantasmal  force  not  included 
among  the  factors  of  natural  evolution.  Our  differences  and  discussions 
may  all  go  on  in  a  healthy  human  way,  if  only  no  man  fancies  he  is 
dearer  to  God  than  the  other  man  who  holds  another  opinion.  So  long 
as  that  notion  survives,  even  in  the  accents  of  discussion,  our  progres- 
sion can  never  be  perfect.  We  must  cast  away  utterly  that  false  weight 
perpetually  insinuating  itself  into  the  balances  of  reason,  turning  the 
scale  this  way  or  that  by  playing  upon  the  nerves  (inherited  from 
theocratic  ages)  of  the  hand  which  should  hold  the  balances  untrem- 
blingly  true.  I  believe  Francis  Abbot  has  held  them  true.  So  steadily 
has  he  done  so  in  instances  where  I  could  judge,  that  even  in  others 
where,  to  my  distant  vision,  his  case  was  not  made  quite  clear,  I  have 
felt  that  he  was  honestly  endeavoring  to  hold  his  balances  true ;  and  it 
is  for  this  his  equity,  for  his  scorn  of  piously  poisoned  weapons,  as  well 
as  for  his  courage  in  taking  the  side  of  an  unpopular  truth  and  his 
patient  working  for  it,  that  I  am  grateful  for  this  opportunity  of  adding 
to  the  tributes  of  those  nearer  to  him  an  old  freethinker's  appreciation 
of  services  which  it  will  require  further  years  to  estimate. 

Ever  faithfully, 

MONCURE    D.    CONtVAY. 

Inglewood,  Bedford  Park,  Chiswick,  Eng.,  June  7,  1880. 


Telegram  from  Prof.  Felix  Adler,  Ph.D. 

Western  Union  Telegraph  Company,  New  York, 

June  25,  1880. 
To  Chairman  of  the  Abbot  Dinner:  — 

Warmest,  heartiest,  and  affectionate  good  wishes  to  Francis  E.  Abbot, 
who  has  so  long  pointed  The  Index  finger  of  liberty  against  all  that  is 
unfree,  untrue,  and  unclean !  I  deplore  his  temporary  retirement  from 
the  combatants,  but  shall  be  consoled  m  watching  how  the  streams  of 
his  intellect,  that  have  poured  through  the  scattered  channels  of  journal- 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  47 

ism,  will  unite  in  one  broad  flow,  and  bear  a  memorable  tribute  to  the 
sea  of  deep  philosophical  thought. 

Examinations  take  place  in  my  Kindergarten  to-day.  I  cannot  be 
with  you  in  person.  I  am  wholly  with  you  in  spirit.  Among  all  the 
appreciative  words  which  you  hear  to-day,  Abbot,  there  is  none  that 
expresses  sincerer  kindness  than  is  felt  for  you  by 

Felix  Adler. 


From  Rev.  John  W.  Chadwick. 

Brooklyn,  May  28,  1880. 
My  dear  Savage:  — 

I  can  see  far  enough  into  the  future  to  know  that  it  will  be  quite  im- 
possible for  me  to  be  in  Boston,  June  25.  I  am  very  sorry  that  it  hap- 
pens so,  for  it  would  give  me  great  pleasure  to  attend  the  dinner  which 
is  to  be  given  in  honor  of  Mr.  Abbot.  I  should  be  sure  of  meeting  there 
many  dear  and  valued  friends,  with  whom  I  should  like  exceedingly  to 
join  in  doing  reverence  to  Mr.  Abbot  for  his  long  and  faithful  service 
as  editor  of  The  Index.  Service  more  faithful,  more  earnest,  more  con- 
scientious, my  imagination  cannot  conceive.  Of  how  many  editors  of 
our  American  journals,  secular  or  rehgious,  could  it  be  truly  said  that 
they  have  never  once  written  an  editorial  or  a  paragraph  which  did  not 
express  their  undermost  conviction  concerning  the  matter  in  hand.-^  liut 
I  am  confident  that  this  might  be  said  of  Francis  Abbot  without  a  parti- 
cle of  exaggeration.  The  life  of  an  editor,  Hke  that  of  a  policeman,  "is 
not  a  happy  one,"  I  fancy,  under  all  circumstances.  Its  annoyances  and 
anxieties  cannot  be  few.  But,  while  Mr.  Abbot  has  doubtless  had  his 
full  share  of  these,  his  consciousness  of  always  endeavoring  to  find  and 
speak  the  highest  truth  on  every  pressing  theme  must  have  afforded  him 
the  purest  consolation. 

Precious  as  much  of  Mr.  Abbot's  editorial  work  has  been  to  me,  what 
I  have  valued  most  have  been  his  elaborate  essays  upon  the  nature  of 
religion  and  morality  and  other  kindred  themes.  For  these  I  cannot 
sufficiently  express  my  gratitude.  Here,  it  appears  to  me,  the  genius  of 
our  friend  has  its  most  natural  home;  and  I  am  hoping  that  one  effect 
of  his  retirement  from  The  Index  will  be  to  furnish  him  with  ampler 
opportunity  for  '-beholding  the  bright  countenance  of  truth  in  the  quiet 
and  still  air  of  delightful  studies,"  and  reporting  to  us  the  radiance  which 
he  has  seen. 

Absent  from  you  in  body,  from  my  heaven-kissing  hill  in  Western 
Massachusetts  my  spirit  will  signal  across  to  you  with  kindliest  fraternal 
salutation.  May  grace  be  given  unto  Mr.  Abbot  to  listen  patiently  and 
sweetly  to  the  truth  concerning  himself,  in  so  far  as  it  shall  then  and 


48  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

there  be  told !  Assure  him  that,  where.ver  he  goes,  our  love  will  follow 
him,  and  that  in  the  great  battle  for  truth  and  freedom  we  shall  still  count 
on  him  for  many  a  valiant  stroke. 

Yours  ever  faithfully, 

John  W.  Chadwick. 

To  Rev.  M.  J.  Savage. 


P>om  the  Hon.  Frederick  Douglass. 

Washington,  D.C,  June  15,  1880. 
Rev.  M.  J.  Savage  : 

My  dear  Sir, —  I  give  you  my  best  thanks  for  the  invitation.  Few 
things,  were  it  but  convenient,  would  be  more  agreeable  to  my  wishes 
than  to  be  present  at  the  dinner  proposed  to  be  given  in  Boston  on  the 
twenty-fifth  in  honor  of  Mr.  Francis  E.  Abbot,  a  gentleman  for  whom  I 
entertain  sentiments  of  highest  respect  and  esteem.  He  has  not  only 
done  much  to  break  the  fetters  of  religious  superstition,  for  which  he  is 
entitled  to  gratitude,  but  he  has  with  singular  abihty  and  earnestness 
enforced  those  lessons  of  personal  rectitude  without  the  observance  of 
which  there  can  be  no  solid  happiness  in  the  world.  I  have  often  risen 
from  the  perusal  of  his  editorials  in  The  Index,  deeply  impressed  with 
their  wholesome,  bracing,  and  elevating  tendency;  and,  'with  many 
others,  I  regret  that  his  vigorous  pen  is  soon  to  be  withdrawn  from  its 
accustomed  work.  I  am  not  quite  sure  that  I  cannot  be  with  you  on  the 
25th  of  June ;  but,  if  not  present  on  that  occasion,  please  express  to  Mr. 
Abbot  my  best  wishes  for  his  health,  prosperity,  and  happiness,  and  for 
his  speedy  return  to  the  field  in  which  he  has  been  a  most  sturdy  and 
valuable  laborer.  Very  truly  yours, 

Fred'k  Douglass. 


From  Mr.  John  L.  Stoddard. 

At  Sea,  on  board  S.  S.  "  City  of  Richmond," 

May  31,  1880. 
J.  A.  J.  Wilcox,  Esq. : 

Dear  Sir, —  When,  on  the  eve  of  my  departure  from  America,  I  read 
your  kind  invitation  to  the  Abbot  Dinner,  I  thought  I  regretted  as  much 
as  was  possible  my  inability  to  be  present.  But  after  having  been  for  a 
week  tossed  unmercifully  on  the  reehng  billows  of  old  Father  Neptune, 
amid  horrid  visions  of  sloping  floors,  swinging  lamps,  and  drunken 
state-rooms,  enlivened  only  by  the  recollection  of  vile  gruel  and  nause- 
ating dishes  served  by  short-waisted  stewards  slanting  about  at  every 
possible  and  impossible  angle, —  under  such  circumstances,   I   confess, 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  49 

I  realize  my  deprivation  more  than  ever;  for  the  thought  of  a  quiet 
dinner  at  Young's,  at  a  motionless  table  loaded  with  choice  viands  and 
surrounded  by  friendly  faces,  seems  to  me  now  the  height  of  human 
happiness. 

Truly  did  Virgil  sing, — "  Caelum,  non  ammu?n,  nmtant  qui  trans 
mare  currufit,^'' —  "  They  change  the  clime,  but  not  the  soul,  who  cross 
the  sea."  For,  however  far  I  may  be  in  body  on  the  evening  of  June  25, 
in  spirit,  in  sympathy,  in  affection,  I  shall  be  one  of  your  pleasant  com- 
pany. Were  I  in  reality  to  be  with  you  on  that  occasion,  I  would  gladly 
join  in  the  sentiment  which  I  know  animates  you  all.  I  would  gladly 
unite  in  uttering  words  (which  yet  are  unneeded)  to  assure  our  beloved 
friend  and  guest  of  the  evening  of  the  appreciation  and  affection  which 
we  feel  for  him,  of  the  sorrow  we  experience  that  he  is  to  change  his 
residence  to  another  city,  and,  above  all,  of  our  keen  regret  that  he 
has  deemed  it  necessary  to  relinquish  the  editorship  of  The  Index.  For 
one,  I  cannot  express  in  w^ords  my  indebtedness  to  Mr.  Abbot  for  his 
clear,  thoughtful,  and  inspiring  editorials. 

There  is  no  parallel  in  America  to  his  course  as  the  truth-and-purity- 
loving  editor  of  The  Index.  All  honor  to  him  for  it !  For  his  bold  lead- 
ership and  self-sacrificing  devotion,  the  liberals  of  America  should  have 
rewarded  him  by  an  enthusiastic  and  loyal  following.  They  will  one  day 
bitterly  regret  their  faithless  desertion  of  him.  Yet  this  is,  after  all,  true 
only  of  certain  cunning  partisans  and  their  deluded  followers.  In  reality, 
Mr.  Abbot  has  a  countless  host  of  loving,  sympathizing  friends,  who, 
though  obscure,  are  not  disloyal.  Indeed,  where  are  not  his  friends? 
They  have  spoken  in  unmistakable  accents  from  Australia,  from  Europe, 
and  from  every  part  of  our  country.  We  represent  at  this  dinner-table 
only  a  minute  fraction  of  those  who  at  heart  thank  our  beloved  friend  a 
thousand  times  for  all  that  he  has  done,  for  all  that  he  has  spoken  and 
written,  yes,  and  particularly  for  all  that  he  has  suf¥ered  for  us  and  the 
cause  that  we  hold  dear.  No  fragrant  flowers,  no  dinners,  speeches,  or 
letters,  acceptable  though  they  may  be,  can  ever  even  remotely  express 
our  debt  of  gratitude  to  Francis  E.  Abbot.  But  as  we  pledge  him  here 
our  love  and  devotion, —  as  we  wish  him  the  best  of  fortune,  and  bid 
him  a  heartfelt  farewell, —  let  us  hope  that  he  can  at  least  detect  a  trace 
of  what  we  feel  in  the  moistened  eye,  the  pressure  of  the  hand,  or  the 
look  of  soul  to  soul.  With  cordial  regards, 

J.  L.  Stoddard. 


From  Rev.  David  A.  Wasson. 

West  Mf:dford,  June  24,  1880. 

My  dear  Sir, —  I  regret  that  it  will  be  impossible  for  me  to  attend  the 

dinner  to  be  given  in  honor  of  Mr.  Abbot.     But  I  beg  leave  to  signify 


50  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

my  hearty  appreciation  of  the  zeal,  earnestness,  industry,  and  constancy 
shown  by  him  in  the  propagation  of  ideas  which  it  required  intellectual 
intrepidity  to  arrive  at,  and  moral  courage  to  profess.  He  and  I  have 
differed,  and  do  so  still,  though  less,  it  may  be,  than  formerly.  But  I 
have  never  been  blind  —  how  could  anyone  be  blind?  —  either  to  his 
acumen  or  his  uncommon  personal  qualities;  and  of  late  I  have  warmly 
sympathized  with  his  contention  against  a  wild  liberalism  (wild,  when  not 
worse),  and  with  his  assertion  of  the  authorhy  of  reason,  represented  by 
the  great  consensus  of  healthy  minds,  as  opposed  to  the  pretensions  of 
an  upstart  individualism  which  would  dissolve  all  the  great  unities,  spir- 
itual and  social,  into  a  dust  of  squeaking  atoms.  From  his  "scientific 
method  "  he  hopes  more  than  I ;  but  I  long  to  see  a  book  in  which  he 
shall  thoroughly  test  its  capabilities  as  applied  to  the  grand  ideal  inter- 
ests of  mankind;  and  I  hope  earnestly  that  he  may  have  health  and 
leisure  to  prepare  such  an  addition  to  our  serious  literature. 

Yours  very  truly,  D.  A.  Wasson. 


From  Rev.  Robert  Collyer. 

New  York,  June  21,  1880. 
Dear  Sir, —  Your  circular,  which  came  this  morning,  thirty-five  days 
after  date  of  issue,  leaves  me  no  time  to  come  to  Boston  to  attend  the 
dinner  you  propose  to  give  Mr.  Abbot  on  the  twenty-fifth.  I  might  not 
have  been  able  to  come  in  any  event,  but  should  have  tried  to  be  there* 
because  I  love  Francis  Abbot  like  a  brother,  and  admire  as  I  love  him. 
I  think  we  are  all  his  debtors  for  the  noble  words  he  has  spoken  to  this 
generation,  and  the  truth  he  has  bought  at  such  a  cost,  but  never  sold. 
It  has  been  laid  on  him  to  penetrate  into  regions  of  thought  still  dim  to 
many  of  us,  and  remote  from  our  life,  and  to  report  to  us  how  divine 
they  are,  even  as  the  little  garden  plots  in  which  we  have  to  labor.  He 
sees  the  truth  in  its  clear  whiteness  :  we  split  the  white  shaft  into  prisms 
after  our  kind.  We  cannot  help  this.  We  must  all  be  true  to  our  vision. 
But  the  whole  world  of  freethinkers  must  feel,  as  I  do,  what  worth  there 
is  in  such  a  rare  gift,  and  in  being  faithful  as  Mr.  Abbot  has  been  to  it, 
and  will  be  even  unto  death.  May  God  bless  all  true  pioneers  like  my 
friend.  Yours  indeed, 

Robert  Collyer. 


From  Rev.  Minot  J.  Savage. 
Mr.  J.  A.  J.  Wilcox  : 

Dear  Sir, —  I  had  hoped  to  be  present  at  the  Abbot  Dinner,  and  in 
person  express  my  appreciation  of  the  brains  and  devotion  which  that 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  5  I 

occasion  is  to  honor.     But,  so  far  from  that,  I  have  not  now  the  time 
even  to  put  on  paper  what  I  think  and  feel. 

We  honor  ourselves  in  honoring  such  a  man.  It  has  never  been  my 
fortune  to  know  a  more  complete  and  unselfish  consecration  to  principle. 
The  mind  and  heart  of  one  such  man  is  enough  to  save  any  cause  from 
contempt;  and  no  movement  which  develops  such  can  be  a  failure. 
Hercules  cleansing  the  Augean  stables  must  have  presented  a  pitiable 
sight.  I  rejoice  to  see  our  Hercules  set  free  from  so  disagreeable  a 
labor.  And  now  I  only  hope  that  some  first-rate  university  will  be  wise 
enough  to  find  or  ?nake  a  chair  for  one  of  the  first  philosophical  minds 
of  America. 

Wishing  you  all  a  good  dinner  and  God-speed,  I  am  heartily  yours, 

M.  J.  Savage. 

Boston,  June  13,  1880. 


From  Mr.  Oliver  Johnson. 

81  Columbia  Heights,  Brooklyn,  N.Y., 
June  II,  1880. 
My  dear  Mr.  Savage  :  — 

I  very  much  regret  that  it  will  not  be  in  my  power  to  accept  your  kind 
invitation  to  the  dinner  to  be  given  to  Mr.  Francis  E.  Abbot  in  view  of 
his  approaching  retirement  from  The  Index.  No  one  will  have  a  place  at 
your  board  on  that  occasion  who  cherishes  a  more  hearty  respect  and 
admiration  than  I  do  for  Mr.  Abbot's  character  and  attainments,  or  a 
higher  appreciation  of  the  personal  independence  which  has  marked  his 
whole  public  career.  If  my  opinions  were  in  all  respects  the  same  as 
his,  I  might  well  suspect  that  my  admiration  for  him  was  that  of  a  parti- 
san elated  upon  finding  a  strong  champion  of  his  own  views  ;  but,  differ- 
ing from  him  as  I  do  upon  some  important  issues,  I  feel  sure  that  my 
admiration  of  him  is  genuine.  Christianity,  as  I  define  it,  —  nay,  let  me 
rather  say,  as  it  is  defined  for  me  by  our  standard  lexicographers, — 
imposes  no  yoke  upon  my  freedom  either  of  thought  or  speech,  but 
furnishes  me  with  a  name  of  mighty  power  in  the  conflict  with  whatever 
tends  to  debase  our  noble  humanity.  Mr.  Abbot  is  constrained  to  fight, 
for  liberty,  purity,  and  righteousness  under  another  banner;  but  he  is 
fighting  in  the  same  cause  and  for  the  same  ends  that  I  am,  and  fighting 
honorably  and  bravely ;  and  I  honor  him  not  the  less  because  he  thinks 
his  position  and  his  weapons  are  better  than  mine.  I  say  with  Paul, 
"  Let  every  man  be  fully  persuaded  in  his  own  mind."  When  he  has 
succeeded  in  reconstructing  the  world  according  to  his  aspirations,  I  am 
perfectly  sure  that  what  I  call  Christianity  will  be  found  enthroned  in 
the  minds  and  hearts  of  men,  and  the  name  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  be 
honored  and  loved  as  never  before. 


52  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

And  so,  with  all  my  heart,  I  crave  a  blessing  upon  your  feast,  and  a 
perpetual  benediction  upon  the  noble  man  in  whose  honor  it  will  be 
spread.  Yours  for  the  largest  liberty, 

Oliver  Johnson. 


From  Prof.  Francis  E.  Nipher. 

St.  Louis,  May  29,  1880. 
Rev.  M.  J.  Savage  : 

My  dear  Sir,  —  I  greatly  regret  that  I  cannot  participate  in  the  pleas- 
ant occasion  in  honor  of  Mr.  Abbot,  as  it  will  be  impossible  for  me  to 
reach  Boston  until  a  somewhat  later  date.  I  am  in  full  sympathy  with 
the  objects  proposed,  and  only  wish  it  were  possible  to  repay  the  debt 
which  we  owe  to  Mr.  Abbot  in  a  more  substantial  currency.  I  hope  he 
will  not  feel  discouraged  by  the  present  appearance  of  events. 

When  we  build  a  road  through  a  marsh,  it  is  sometimes  necessary  to 
spend  thousands  of  dollars  in  sinking  stones  and  logs  out  of  sight  into 
the  mud.  Apparently  there  is  nothing  to  show  for  the  work  ;  but  the 
stones  are  there,  and  suddenly  we  have  a  road. 

I  think  much  of  Mr.  Abbot's  work  in  The  Index  is  of  this  kind.  The 
issues  have  been  bravely  met.  People  are  thinking  about  them,  and  the 
final  result  is  not  doubtful.  Others  besides  Mr.  Abbot  are  suffering, 
and  for  like  reasons.  The  most  essential  thing  is  that  we  do  not  allow 
our  individual  troubles  to  annoy  us  unduly. 

Thanking  you  most  cordially  for  the  kindness  of  your  letter, 
I  remain  very  truly  yours, 

Francis  E.  Nipher. 


From  Rabbi  Max  Schlesinger. 

Albany,  June  22,  1880. 
Rev.  M.  J.  Savage,  Boston  : 

Dear  Sir,  —  You  know  that  there  is  no  wisdom  in  fretting  because  of 
the  slavery  in  which  we  are  held  by  circumstances.  But  sometimes  the 
temptation  to  be  unwise  is  too  strong.  How  I  Would  have  delighted  to 
vie  with  Mr.  Abbot's  friends  in  showing  honor  to  him  who  deserves  it  so 
well!  If  the  tyrant  circumstances  had  permitted  me  to  be  with  you,  I 
might  have  drawn  inspiration  from  the  genial  face  and  sparkling  eyes  of 
your  honored  guest,  and  perhaps  succeeded  in  giving  utterance  to  the 
love  and  reverence  I  harbor  for  the  noble  man  and  eminent  thinker. 

From  the  first  time  I  ever  read  a  line  of  Mr.  Abbot,  he  became  one 
of  my  ideals  after  which  I  endeavor  to  aspire.  His  intellectual  vigor, 
unwavering  earnestness,   and  outspoken    honesty  exerted  upon  me,  at 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  53 

least,  an  irresistible  attraction.  It  seemed  to  me  as  if  I  had  been 
acquainted  with  him  from  my  earliest  youth;  for  his  is  a  spirit  kindred 
to  that  of  our  own  Jewish  prophets.  With  the  same  purity  of  heart  and 
exaltedness  of  thought,  he  forestalls  the  future  more  or  less  clearly 
pointed  out  by  the  Hebrew  prophets,  when  all  men  will  worship  the  God 
of  Truth  only.  With  the  same  fervency,  unmindful  of  consequences,  he 
expounds  the  religion  of  humanity  to  which  Judaism  at  all  times  aspired. 
It  seems  but  natural  that  he,  being  one  of  the  prophets  of  our  genera- 
tion, should  be  maligned  and  persecuted.  But  this  fate,  common  to  all 
great  men,  must  endear  him  the  more  to  the  heart  of  all  who  are  able  to 
appreciate  his  greatness  and  the  inestimable  services  which  he  renders 
to  the  development  of  religious  thought. 

Though  I  deeply  sorrow  over  his  retirement  from  The  Index,  which 
for  years  has  been  my  most  welcom-e  friend,  I  am  confident  that  Mr. 
Abbot  will  find  a  field  for  his  untiring  activity  and  zeal  in  behalf  of 
enlightened  religious  sentiments. 

Thanking  you  most  heartily  for  your  kindness  which  permitted  me  to 
express  my  sympathies  with   Mr.  Abbot   and    Mr.   Abbot's   friends,   I 
assure  you  that,  though  absent  in  body,  I  am  with  you  in  spirit. 
Most  truly  and  respectfully  yours, 

Dr.  M.  SCHLESINGER. 


From  Mr.  B.  F.  Underwood. 

Thorndike,  June  24,  1880. 
Mr.  M.  J.  Savage: 

Dear  Sir, —  I  have  been  expecting  till  to-day  the  pleasure  of  meeting 
with  Mr.  Abbot  and  his  friends  in  Boston  to-morrow  evening ;  but  cir- 
cumstances I  could  not  foresee  will  prevent.  The  loss  will  be  mine. 
Could  I  be  present,  I  should  wish  to  speak  a  few  words,  giving  my  esti- 
mate of  Mr.  Abbot's  ability  and  of  the  value  of  his  services.  I  am  glad 
to  know  that  others  will  be  there  who  will  speak  more  fittingly  than  I 
should  be  able  to. 

All  honor  to  Francis  E.  Abbot,  the  clear-headed  thinker,  the  con- 
scientious editor,  the  scholarly  representative  of  free  thought,  and  the 
earnest  advocate  of  equal  and  exact  justice  for  all !  His  unwavering 
loyalty  to  his  own  convictions  of  duty,  and  the  noble  moral  enthusiasm 
which  has  sustained  him  in  his  work,  command  the  admiration  even  of 
his  opponents.  His  character,  without  a  vulnerable  spot  as  large  even 
as  the  heel  of  Achilles  through  which  any  arrow  of  malice  could  find  its 
way,  is  valued  most  by  those  who  know  him  bes*.  Thousands  who  have 
become  acquainted  with  Mr.  Abbot  through  The  Index  will  continue  to 
feel  a  deep  interest  in  his  welfare,  while  they  will  never  forget  the  heroic 
work  he  has  done. 


54  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

Regretting  that  I  cannot  be  present,  and  wishing  you  a  very  pleasant 
party,  I  am 

Very  truly  yours, 

B.  F.' Underwood. 


From  Mr.  Charles  K.  Whipple. 

Brook  LINE,  May  30,  1880. 
Messrs.  M.  J.  Savage,  Wm.  J.  Potter,  and  others : 

Dear  Friends^ —  I  rejoice  to  learn,  by  your  kind  note  of  invitation  now 
before  me,  that  the  friends  of  Mr.  Francis  E.  Abbot  intend  to  give  public 
expression  to  their  high  regard  for  him,  and  their  appreciation  of  his 
work  as  editor  of  The  Index,  before  he  leaves  Boston.  Circumstances 
will  prevent  my  presence  at  the  dinner  you  propose  to  give  on  the  25th 
of  June.  But  I  am  heartily  glad  to  find  this  occasion  of  declaring  the 
respect  and  reverence  I  feel  for  Mr,  Abbot,  and  my  sense  of  the  prac- 
tical value  of  his  editorial  work  in  promoting  the  public  welfare,  intel- 
lectually and  morally.  For  ten  years,  we,  the  readers  of  The  Index,  have 
recognized  in  Mr.  Abbot  an  earnest  search  for  truth,  a  candid  estimate 
of  conflicting  opinions  in  regard  to  it,  a  frank  and  fearless  expression 
of  the  conclusions  at  which  he  had  arrived,  justice  in  dealing  with  oppo- 
nents, signal  sweetness  of  temper  under  misrepresentation  and  abuse, 
confidence  that  free  discussion  is  the  right  and  the  best  means  of  finding- 
truth,  persistent  labor  and  self-sacrifice  in  behalf  of  principle,  and  a 
purity  and  nobleness  of  life  which  enhanced  the  value  of  his  testimony. 

I  would  especially  mention  in  Mr.  Abbot's  praise  that,  when  occasion 
arose,  he  emphasized  the  distinction  between  liberalism  and  libertinism, 
and  did  not  shrink  from  the  unpleasant  duty  of  resisting  those  who  would 
press  liberty  to  the  point  of  licentiousness. 

Trusting  that  Mr.  Abbot  may  meet  the  success  he  so  well  deserves 
in  his  next  enterprise,  and  that  all  may  go  well  at  the  pleasant  festival 
you  are  arranging, 

I  am  yours  very  truly, 

Charles  K.  Whipple. 


From  Prof.  Adolph  Werner. 

New  York,  339  West  29th  Street,  June  1,1880.' 
Mr.  M.  J.  Savage: 

Dear  Sir, —  Please  accept  my  thanks  for  your  kind  invitation.  It 
would  give  me  great  pleasure  to  be  able  to  join  you  in  an  expression  of 
admiration  of  Mr.  Abbot,  for  whose  character,  intellect,  attainments,  and 
work  I  have  long  had  the  highest  respect.  I  regret  exceedingly  that  the 
work  connected  with  the  close  of  the  college  year  will  detain  me  in  New 
York. 

I  am  very  respectfully  yours, 

Adolph  Werner. 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  55 

From  Rev.  Samuel  Longfellow. 

Germantown,  May  31. 
Dear  Sir, —  My  duties  will  keep  me  at  home  at  the  time  of  the  pro- 
posed dinner  to  Mr.  Abbot,  so  that  I  cannot  accept  your  invitation.  I 
should  be  glad,  however,  to  say  that,  while  I  have  often  differed  from 
The  Index  in  thought  and  in  methods,  I  have  always  respected  its 
editor's  ability,  thorough  sincerity,  and  good  spirit;  his  devoted  and 
eager  knight-errantry  in  behalf  of  liberty  and  in  the  search  for  truth ; 
and  his  earnest  loyalty  in  keeping  the  banner  of  liberalism  free  from 
moral  stain. 

Sending  my  respects  to  him  and  the  good  company  which  will  gather 
to  greet  him  on  the  twenty-fifth, 

I  am,  dear  sir,  cordially  yours, 

Samuel  Longfellow. 

Rev.  M.  J.  Savage. 


From  Mr.  George  Jacob  Holyoake. 

Newcastle  Chambers,  Essex  Street,  Temple, 
London,  W.C.,  June  10,  1880. 

My  dear  Sir, —  A  short  illness  overtook  me  in  Scotland,  else  I  should 
have  replied  to  your  letter  at  once.  It  would  be  to  me  a  pleasure,  as 
well  as  an  honor,  to  take  part  in  the  dinner  to  Mr.  Francis  Ellingwood 
Abbot,  were  it  possible.  Few  persons  whom  I  had  the  pleasure  to 
meet  in  America  impressed  me  more  than  he,  with  his  bright  earnest- 
ness and  singleness  of  purpose  in  the  advocacy  of  progressive  opinion. 
His  noble  impetuosity  in  striving  for  the  intrinsic  integrity  of  free 
thought,  alike  in  principle  and  conduct,  makes  us  all  in  every  country 
his  debtors,  who  care  for  the  reputation  of  intellectual  liberty.  I  trust 
that  the  great  cause  which  he  has  so  brilliantly  carried  forward  will 
continue  to  prosper  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Potter,  his  successor,  and  that 
Mr.  Abbot  will  live  long  to  witness,  with  pride  and  honor,  the  good 
seeds  spring  up  a  thousand-fold,  which  he  has  sown  with  so  valiant 
a  hand. 

Not  being  able  to  write  myself,  my  daughter  Emilie  writes  for  me,  in 
the  hope  that  these  few  words  may  reach  you  with  the  many  others  you 
will  receive  on  the  twenty-fifth. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

George  Jacob  Holyoake. 

The  Rev.  M.  J.  Savagh. 


56  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

From  Mr.  Charles  Watts. 

The  "  Secular  Review,"  84  Fleet  Street, 
London,  E.C.,  June  8,  1880. 

Dear  Sir, —  Many  thanks  for  your  kind  invitation  to  be  present  at  the 
dinner  you  intend  giving  to  Mr.  Abbot  on  June  25.  I  regret  very  much 
that  I  shall  not  be  present,  as  it  would  afford  me  great  pleasure  to  join 
in  a  manifestation  of  hearty  appreciation  of  the  labors  of  one  who,  like 
Mr.  Abbot,  has  lived  a  noble  and  consistent  public  life.  I  have  not  the 
pleasure  of  personally  knowing  the  gentleman  ;  but,  from  his  writings 
and  the  testimony  of  those  who  have  the  advantage  of  his  acquaintance, 
it  is  evident  that  he  is  thoroughly  worthy  of  the  honor  you  are  about  to 
confer  upon  him.  Mr.  Abbot  is  undoubtedly  a  consistent  worker  for  the 
public  good,  and  one  who  has  the  courage  of  his  opinions  and  a  marked 
fidelity  to  conviction;  a  gentleman  who  has  proved  that  he  has  a  mind 
superior  to  selfish  interests,  and  whose  actions  are  governed  by  the 
principles  of  uniform  rectitude  and  integrity.  In  his  future  career,  I 
earnestly  wish  him  every  success,  and  trust  that  your  gathering  on  the 
twenty-fifth  will  be  in  every  sense  successful. 

With  sympathy  for  all  who  work  for  human  improvement. 
Believe  me,  yours  very  truly, 

Charles  Watts. 

The  Rev.  M.  J.  Savage,  Boston,  Mass. 


From  Mr.  Nathaniel  R.  Waters. 

Rev.  M.  J.  Savage: 

Dear  Sir, —  Your  missives  reached  me  in  Baltimore  a  few  days  ago, 
and  I  would  gladly  thank  you  for  them  in  person  and  be  present  at  the 
forthcoming  banquet ;  but  fate  will  not  have  it  so.  To  honor  Mr.  Abbot 
at  this  time  is  to  honor  Truth  and  Right,  and  to  uphold  the  liberal  cause 
upon  its  only  safe  and  sound  basis.  We  have  crying  need  of  men  like 
him,  and  of  the  work  they  are  fitted  to  do.  Happy  for  society  and  the 
world,  whose  monster  evils  the  spread  of  knowledge  and  righteousness 
alone  can  effectually  redress,  if  the  nee'ded  seers  and  doers  shall  speedily 
come,  and  if  they  shall  be  recognized  and  honored  as  they  ought  to  be 
wherever  they  appear.  The  liberal  name  covers  self-seekers  and  dema- 
gogues to  a  fearful  extent ;  and  the  amount  of  small  shot  expended 
against  the  heaving  sides  of  moribund  church  religion  is  shocking  to 
an  economist.  But  the  "  words  fitly  spoken,"  that  will  help  us  to  avoid 
putting  our  own  lusts  in  the  place  of  our  neighbors'  superstitions,  are 
indeed  so  rare  as  to  be  "  like  apples  of  gold  in  network  of  silver."  For 
my  part,  I  can  hardly  conceive  of  our  Index  without  an  Abbot  ;  but  I 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  57 

heartily  hope  that  the  organ  will  flourish  under  the  new  auspices,  for  we 
require  it  still,  and  I  know  of  no  paper  to  take  its  place. 

Let  me  in  conclusion  wish  a  useful,  prosperous,  and  lengthened  life- 
time to  Mr.  Abbot;  to  The  Index,  abounding  success  and  triumph;  to 
all  your  good   company,   appetite,   digestion,  and  fresh,   free-thinking 

fruits  to  follow. 

I  am,  sir,  respectfully  yours, 

Nathaniel  Ramsay  Waters. 

Washington,  D.C,  June  3,  1880. 


From  Mr.  Lewis  G.  Janes. 

Brooklyn,  June  23,  1880. 
Mr.  J.  A.  J.  Wilcox: 

My  dear  Sir, —  Contrary  to  my  expectation,  business  engagements 
will  prevent  me  from  being  present  at  the  dinner  to  Mr.  Abbot  on 
Friday  next.  I  had  made  all  my  arrangements  to  go,  and  am  reluc- 
tantly compelled  to  alter  my  plans. 

I  shall  be  with  you,  however,  in  spirit  and  sympathy.  My  acquaint- 
ance with  Mr.  Abbot  through  The  Index,  since  its  earliest  issue,  has 
steadily  heightened  my  respect  for  his  sincerity,  truthfulness,  and 
ability.  The  cause  of  freedom  and  character  in  religion  can  ill  afford 
to  lose  the  labor  of  his  brain  and  pen ;  and  I  can  but  hope,  while 
wishing  him  all  success  in  his  new  field  of  labor,  that  the  cause  to 
which  he  has  already  devoted  so  many  of  his  best  years  may  not 
wholly  be  deprived  of  his  voice  and  pen. 

Acknowledging  gratefully  my  own  personal  obligations  to  Mr.  Abbot, 

I  am  yours  faithfully, 

Lewis  G.  Janes. 


From  Mr.  Charles  M.  Cuyler. 

Albany,  N.Y.,  June  23,  1880. 
J.  A.  J.  Wilcox  : 

Dear  Sir,  —  Absence  from  the  city  and  other  causes  have  interfered 
to  prevent  an  earlier  reply  to  the  kind  invitation  of  yourself  and  others 
to  be  present  at  a  dinner  to  be  tendered  our  friend,  Mr.  F.  E.  Abbot, 
upon  the  occasion  of  his  leaving  The  Index,  over  whose  columns  he 
has  so  long  and  so  ably  presided.  I  exceedingly  regret  that  business 
engagements  will  not  permit  my  attendance  at  an  entertainment  which 
cannot  fail  to  be  an  extremely  delightful  one.  My  sympathies  have 
been  with  Mr.  Abbot  throughout  his  connection  with  The  Index,  but 
more  particularly  during  the  last  few  years,  when  he  has  been  obliged 


58  FAREWELL    DINNER. 

to  Struggle  with  a  desperate  effort  to  pervert  to  base  uses  and  ends  the 
cause  he  had  so  dearly  loved  and  bravely  and  unselfishly  labored  for. 

My  kindest  and  best  wishes  go  equally  with  our  friend  wherever  duty 
may  in  the  future  carry  him,  and  with  the  dear  Index  under  its  new 
management.  I  shall  be  pleased  at  any  time  to  contribute  my  mite  to 
any  more  substantial  testimonial  which  Mr.  Abbot's  friends  may  see  fit 
to  tender  him,  and  which  I  believe  he  deserves  to  receive. 
I  am  yours  very  respectfully, 

Chas.  M.  Cuyler. 


From  Mr.  E.  B.  Welch. 

New  York,  137  Broadway,  June  24,  1880. 
Mr.  J.  A.  J.  Wilcox: 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  been  hoping,  ever  since  the  receipt  of  the  invita- 
tion that  you  kindly  sent  me,  to  be  able  to  meet  our  mutual  friend, 
Francis  E.  Abbot,  at  the  dinner  to  be  given  in  his  honor  to-morrow,  in 
Boston,  by  a  few  of  his  numerous  friends  and  admirers ;  but  at  the  last 
moment  I  am  reluctantly  compelled  to  forego  the  anticipated  pleasure. 
I  know  that  the  occasion  will  be  a  rare  social  and  intellectual  treat,  and 
regret  that  I  cannot  enjoy  it  and  express  to  Mr.  Abbot  the  obligations 
that  I  feel  under  to  him  for  the  large  measure  of  enjoyment  and  instruc- 
tion derived  from  The  Index  while  under  his  editorship. 

Will  you  also  do  me  the  favor  to  present  to  Mr.  Abbot  a  volume  which 
I  found  to-day  in  a  street  book-stall,  bearing  the  following  title  :  — 

'■'  Antonii  van  Dale  Dissertatiojies  de  Origine  ac  Frogressu  Idololatrice 
et  Snperstitionutn^''  etc. 

It  bears  the  imprint  of  "Boom,"  Amsterdam,  MDCXCVI  (1696);  so 
that  booms  are  not  a  modern  invention,  as  New  Yorkers  generally  sup- 
pose. Whether  the  book  has  any  special  value  except  for  its  age  and 
the  Sw  ejects  it  treats  of,  I  am  not  competent  to  judge,  having  dropped 
my  school-days  Latin,  together  with  my  early  Calvinistic  education,  along 
the  road  of  life ;  but  I  think  that  Mr.  Abbot,  being  a  scholar  as  well  as  a 
philosopher,  may  find  something  in  it  that  may  give  it  some  value  to  him. 

Yours  truly, 

E.  B.  Welch. 


From  Mr.  William  Green. 

West  New^tox,  May  31,  1880. 
Mr.  J.  A.  J.  Wilcox  : 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  before  me  your  note  of  the  1 7th  instant,  inviting 
me  to  unite  with  some  of  Mr.  Abbot's  friends  in  giving  him  a  social 
reception  before  he  shall  relinquish  the  editorship  of   The  Index.     Mr. 


FAREWELL    DINNER.  59 

Abbot  deserves  all  the  attention  and  honor  and  sympathy  that  will  ever 
be  given  him,  and  I  am  pleased  to  hear  of  the  proposed  meeting  of  his 
friends.  As  long  as  I  have  known  The  Index,  I  have  been  much  inter- 
ested in  it  and  in  Mr.  Abbot,  and  would  be  much  gratified  to  become 
acquainted  with  those  who  sympathize  with  him  in  his  reformatory 
labors.  But  my  age,  with  its  usual  accompaniments,  is  such  that  I  do 
not  go  out  evenings,  nor  could  I  endure  the  fatigue  that  would  attend  it ; 
and  my  hearing  is  such  that  I  should  hear  very  little  of  what  would  be 
said  on  the  occasion,  and  consequently  should  be  no  companion.  There- 
fore I  am  obliged  to  ask  you  to  accept  these  reasons  as  my  excuse  for 
not  joining  with  you  and  others  on  the  proposed  occasion.  Please  accept 
my  thanks  for  the  invitation. 

Yours  fraternally, 

William  Green. 


From  Mr.  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  by  his  daughter. 

Concord,  June  23,  1880. 
Rev.  Mr.  Savage  : 

Dear  Sir, —  My  father  duly  received  your  note  inviting  him  to  the 
dinner  for  Mr.  Abbot ;  but  he  does  not  feel  able  to  come,  nor  even  to 
write  a  letter  for  the  occasion.  He  for  some  time  deferred  answering 
your  letter,  thinking  he  might  be  able  to  write  later  ;  but  he  finds  he 
is  not.  Yours  truly, 

Ellen  J.  Emerson. 


YC 1 00065 


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